14 guys in 7 days
by Maximum Chaos-Chan
Summary: Sakura doesn't have a date to the dance. What'll she do if her friends set up a personal ad for her on the school website? What'll she do when some of her school's hottest guys reply? Who will she chose? Saku x Everyone. THIS IS A LITERAL PILE OF SHIT.
1. Prologue

**Hi there!**

** I was sitting in Chemistry today, reading my library book, when I decided to use it's basic plot for a fanfiction. So this is based from the book "24 girls in 7 days" by Alex Bradley.**

**Read it, it's pretty good. :) **

**I hope my fanfiction is too. D;**

**So R slash R or I will stab you with a wire coat hanger in the eye (just kitting. Haha....no? Okay.)**

**

* * *

**

Maybe I should clear up a few things before I start my story, because first there are a few things you should know about me and the people that I know (or don't know).

1.) My name is Sakura Haruno.

2.) I just became a junior at Leaf Private School, which is a boarding school located in Konoha.

3.) Our mascot is a leaf. (Honestly)

4.) Our uniforms are as follows. Girls: White blouse (mandatory), Green plaid skirt (mandatory), green vest w/school emblem (leaf symbol) (optional), black dress shoes (no open toed shoes, sandals, flip flops, sneakers, etc.) (mandatory). Boys: White dress shirt (mandatory), black slacks (mandatory), black tie (mandatory), green vest (optional), black dress shoes (mandatory), black blazer w/ green emblem (optional).

5.) My dorm room is one big room with 2 double beds separated by 2 night stands. Across from them on the other wall is a flat screen TV and under it 2 dressers. On the other side of each bed is a dark wood desk. On the wall opposite the door is a sliding glass door which leads on to the small balcony.

6.) I'm not some unpopular fat geeky girl who has no friends and experience with boys. Well maybe just that last part.

7.) I'm also not popular. I grew up being friends with Naruto Uzumaki and Sasuke Uchiha (aka: Practically the Gods of LPS) and I know a lot of the popular people too, including my best friend Ino Yamanaka. If anything I'm as high on the social ladder as I am by association only.

8.) I'm not ugly. In fact I'm insanely hot. I just don't broadcast it (modesty is key), so no one really knows this fact.

9.) The school is run by the popular kids of the juniors: Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, Neji Hyuga, Kiba Inuzuka, Ino Yamanaka, Hinata Hyuga, Tenten, and Temari.

10.) My best friends are Ino, Hinata, Tenten, and Shikamaru (and also by association with Shikamaru, Choji Akimichi).

11.) Now I used to be a raging Sasuke fangirl when we were all kids. I stopped all that though when I realized how immature and stupid I was and focused more on my school work (Straight A's SUCK THAT!) After the years we hardly talk, (not that we did much before) but he at least acknowledges my presence rather than ignore me or openly insult me and call me annoying (cough like Ino cough cough).

With this information, I'll get on with my story and explain the rest as I go.


	2. Chapter One

**Here you are! :) R/R NAOWW!! ;D**

Day 10:

I was sitting in my new dorm room. Well, I can't say it's new technically. We've been here for a month exactly, according to my calendar. We just now got absolutely everything situated. By we I'm referring to Hinata and myself, (who by an act god, got put in the same room, right across from Ino and Tenten). By situated I mean we each got our new bedspread/sheets (mine pink with red polka-dots, her's dark purple with lavender polka-dots), decorated our walls with our favorite band posters, and added some other decorations to make it "our" room.

I popped open the can of Coca-Cola next to my laptop, as I sat at my desk. Hinata was buzzing around our dorm room picking up any dirty clothes, or anything for that matter and putting it in it's proper place. Ino and Tenten would be coming over in a few minutes to hang out and gossip, etc. You know the various girly things girls do when they get together.

Maybe your asking "Sakura, if all your friends are popular, why aren't you as popular as them?". It's a legitimate question. Actually, it's a great question. I don't want to be popular. I don't like the center of attention thing like Ino. I feel embarrassed too much. I don't have most of my classes with them since I'm in more advanced courses, I also sit with Shikamaru and Choji at lunch, because I'm friends with some of the popular people, but not all of them, therefore, I cannot invite myself into there table. I do hang out with them after school, but I generally avoid it when other people are involved. Not to mention being that close to Sasuke all the time would probably kill me. I may not be a raging fangirl, but I'm still madly in love with the guy.

I heard an annoyed knock at the door. Ino. "I got it." I said getting up from my chair and opening the door.

"Hey." Tenten said with a smile, as Ino just pushed past me and entered. (Typical.) I stepped aside for Tenten then quickly shut the door.

"Hey Hina-chan." Tenten said greeting Hinata as she rushed to pack the stack of laundry into her drawers before either of them noticed.

"Hi Tenten." Hinata said managing a smile.

Ino flopped down on my bed and opened up the magazine she had brought with her. "We were looking at homecoming dresses." She said to no one in particular.

"When is it?" I asked going back to my desk chair as Tenten sat cross-legged on Hinata's bed.

"In exactly 10 days" Tenten said matter o'factly.

"Therefore, dresses are top priority." Ino said, just as Hinata joined Tenten on her bed and nodded.

"Oh." I said shrugging. I didn't care about the Homecoming dance. I hated dances, I never had anyone to go with and always felt awkward and embarrassed.

"Oh? Sakura, do you have your dress already?" Tenten asked.

"No...I'm not going." I said slowly.

"WHAT?!" Ino said sitting up and staring at me.

"You have to go Sakura-chan!" Hinata said.

"Exactly! I don't care if you **never** go! Your going!" Tenten exclaimed.

"I hate dances. Besides I don't have a date." I said quickly turning my swiveling desk chair slightly to the door in case I needed to escape.

"Who cares?" Tenten said moving to my bed to sit by Ino.

"Do you three have dates?" I asked.

"No, we don't need dates, we are the popular crowd, getting a date means your exclusive with someone. Normal students can go with whoever they want." Ino said as if I was an idiot for trying to make that a point in my defense.

"In fact it is sad and pathetic if a girl goes to a dance alone and she is not very popular." Tenten said frowning at me, as if I was already sad and pathetic.

"Ugh, this is why I hate that whole crowd, you all have your imaginary unspoken rules you make up for your etiquette. I don't need a date, because I'm not going." Sakura said rolling her eyes.

"You need a date, and you need a dress." Ino said firmly.

"Oh, and your going." Hinata said.

"No."

"Yes." The three of them chorused.

"I refuse."

"You have no choice." Ino shrugged looking back at her magazine.

"Yes, I do." I said standing up and leaving the room.

* * *

I walked down the girls hallway and turned the corner. I passed the girl's common area, which was nearly empty, except for a few girls chatting on a couch, and two other girls watching TV. I moved to the next floor and met few people in the hall. None of which I talked to, because I liked to pretend I was invisible and not make eye-contact. Thus avoiding awkward moments in which you have to acknowledge the other person's presence and if you know them, carry a conversation. Not exactly my area of expertise.

An hour and a half later, I eventually made my way into the courtyard. I walked silently to the far end and climbed inside a cherry blossom tree. Your now probably questioning why I did this, right? Yes? Okay. I'll tell you. It's my favorite place on campus. It hides me perfectly, cherry blossoms/pink hair. Also you don't bump into people when your hanging out in a cherry tree, do you? Exactly. Also the whole "Sakura" irony makes me smile a little bit.

I sat there for another half hour peering through the blossoms and watching students and staff walk around the courtyard. Sometimes you get the occasional gems of gossip for doing this. I was the one who discovered Asuma and Kurenai-sensei exchanging a passionate kiss behind the large Leaf Private School sign at one in the morning, I usually supplied this information to Ino, Tenten, and Hinata. Which was usually followed by Ino mass-texting the whole school about what she had just discovered.

Finally realizing it was a slow day for gossip, and that it was already 7:30 I decided to head back to the dorm.

* * *

As I walked through the main lobby I heard a voice call out my name. "Oy Sakura-chan!"

"Uh?" I said looking around. I didn't recognize the voice, therefore I was extremely confused who would single me out in public, let alone know who I was.

"Oh. Your Sakura Haruno, right?" A tall blonde senior said walking up to me. He had long blonde hair pulled back into a ponytail, and his bangs falling over the side of his face. He looked a lot like Ino actually, which creeped me out, along with the fact that a fairly popular senior was talking to me.

"Uhm. Yes?" I said. Immediately mentally abusing myself. Yes? What did I not know who I was.

"I read your ad." He said smiling.

"What ad?" I said narrowing my eyes at him.

"The ad you posted online." He said continuing to grin.

I had no idea what he was talking about, and why he was grinning. I was afraid to ask, it's like when you get a spam message from a friend who has been hacked. The message'll tell you they saw a video of you on some site, then you click on it and get a virus.

"I don't know what your talking about." I said flatly.

His grin disappeared for a minute. "The personal ad you posted on the school blog page."

"...P-P-Personal ad?" I managed to get out.

"Yeah." He said staring at me confused, holding up his blackberry.

"Can...Can I see it?" I said taking a deep breath. He handed the phone to me silently.

I looked down at the web-page already open on the small screen.

_**Sakura Haruno won't play hard to get.**_

_** Sakura Haruno won't lead you on.**_

_** Sakura Haruno is not a slut, she is a hot intelligent lady.**_

_** Sakura Haruno is looking for a Homecoming date. Could it be you?**_

**Email at: MyHomecomingDate  
**

Sakura's eye twitched as she stared at the screen. She clicked on the email address and swiftly typed.

**It is with deep gratitude that I thank you, benevolent anonymous benefactor, for the intelligent and humane personal ad, which I'm sure will prove to be a pivotal event in the narrative of my maturation.**

** Your humble servant,**

** Sakura Haruno**

**P.S. I will poke your eyes out with a coat hanger.**

Sakura clicked send, and shoved the phone back at Deidara.

"Sorry, I didn't post that, but I'm going to kill whoever did."


	3. Chapter Two

**A/N: Heyyy.**

**Here's Chapter Two. :) I'm a little bit rushed to get the set up over with.**

**Haha. But I have to let it make sense! Some what...haha.**

**Well R&R if you pleasseee. ;)**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto. :(  
**

I walked quickly away from the main lobby, leaving Deidara standing there holding his phone. I shouldn't have clicked that virus link. That's what this is. A virus, quickly spreading to completely destroy my anonymity. As soon as the lobby doors shut behind me I broke into a run, tearing ass down the hallway and up the first set of stairs not bothering to wait for the elevator that was hardly quick to make it's way to the first floor. I made it into the stair well and flew up 3 flights of stairs, progressively getting slower. I took a breath at the top of the stairs and pulled the door open sprinting straight into the hallway, which immediately proceeded with me slamming into someone and being knocked to the floor. I landed flat on my back smacking my head on the shutting stair well door behind me.

"Son of a bitch!" I shouted loudly my hand flying to the back of my pink head. I looked at my fingers sure to see blood.

"Excuse you." A deep voice said, or more like growled down at me.

I looked towards the source of the growling/fall and saw a red haired boy standing in front of me. His eyes were a bright blue they almost seemed aqua, however they were surrounded by a ring of dark black, which seemed like a permanent eyeliner. Creepy? Yes.

"Uh. Sorry? I'm in a hurry."

"Why?" He said his eyes staring at me intently. Creepier? Oh, yes.

"I'm about to kill someone." I said shrugging. It was true. I was already pretty sure of who made the personal ad, the matter at hand was how fast I could grab her long silky blonde ponytail and rip it from her head then possibly strangle her with it.

His eyes perked up a bit at that, and he started at me interested in this. Run away now? Definitely.

I took this as my cue to leave, not sure how to end the "conversation", I abruptly turned and sprinted down the hallway and around the corner to my door.

I yanked the door angrily open and slammed it behind me as I stomped in. No one was there to enjoy my dramatically angry entrance. I was mildly disappointed, as I sat down at my desk and opened my laptop immediately pulling open a new web page.

Finally I ended up on my personal ad page. At the top I now noticed the picture of me next to it. I wasn't even looking at the camera, my eyes were looking away my eyebrow half raised. I remember that moment exactly. Tenten took the picture. Ino was telling me how fat she was and pinching her stomach trying to find this mysterious fat. She claimed she wished she had my figure, I just gave her a whatever look.

This meant just what I thought.

This was the work of my best friends.

I mean EX-best friends.

I tried to find away to delete the personal add, but the "MyHomecomingDate" account had added it. I couldn't delete it. Most people would see it, Saturday night was when they posted all the announcements for the week. Along with all the sports scores and videos from the previous week, which everyone happened to check. On the main page there was a section above the sports category reading:

------------------------------Personal Ads (0)-----------------------------------

It now read:

------------------------------Personal Ads (1!)-----------------------------------

Everyone would read this. My soul died a little bit inside.

* * *

I couldn't find much to do to occupy myself. Saturday was a mandatory appearance night for all popular students at LPS. You couldn't be in your dorm room at all. If you couldn't get off campus, you had to at least make your rounds around the dorms to socialize or find some other "cool" activity to be seen engaged in. It was unspoken rule number 7.

For this reason, I didn't bother calling or texting the three girls who put an end to my life. They would be too busy, or I didn't want them to let everyone hear the embarrassing confrontation about to unfold. I might as well wait until tomorrow.

I tried reading, but I couldn't focus. I ended up reading the same paragraph over and over again, still not understanding what it said. Nothing registered in my brain, all I could think of was Deidara walking up to me in his cool name-brand t-shirt, singling me out in public. He knew about the add. A popular senior, I could assume the rest of the seniors did too. If they knew something, it was bound to spill to the juniors (if they didn't already know) and down the rest of the social ladder.

I realized I was probably the only one alone, but I couldn't bring myself to leave the room again, I didn't know how quickly this could spread. For all I know it was a ticking time bomb lodged in my brain. It sits there waiting, but you can't do anything but wait.

This thing was bound to explode.

* * *

Day 9:

I woke up to the sound of quiet footsteps shuffling around the room. I heard a drawer open and shut. I rolled over and stared at Hinata who was trying to decide which blouse to wear, as quietly as she could might I add.

I wasn't sure if Hinata was trying not to wake me up, to avoid the "Why did you put a personal ad for me up on the school website and therefore embarrass me in front of the entire student body?" conversation that would ensue. Then again I realized Hinata wouldn't want to wake me up unless she had to, she was just nice that way. Never loud or obnoxious like Ino, who wouldn't have given a crap about my peace and quiet on a Sunday morning.

Actually I realized Hinata would probably be innocent. No one would be able to stop Ino and Tenten if they got on a roll with an idea of theirs. Especially meek Hina-chan.

"Morning." I said as I sat up stretching. This caused Hinata to jump and turn around quickly.

"Good Morning Sakura-chan! I didn't w-wake you did I?" She said taking a deep breath.

"No, don't worry about it." I sat in bed watching her stand there, she looked down and nervously rubbed at the white ruffled blouse in her hand.

"Mm." She said biting her lip.

"Is there something wrong?" I asked innocently.

"I...No...Um...No." She decided turning back around to rummage through her drawers.

"Okay then." I said getting up. I went to my drawers and grabbed a pair of shorts and a red tank top. I through them on my bed and hastily got dressed, running my fingers through my short hair as I stood by the mirror hanging on the wall. I grabbed my phone as I slipped on my flip flops. "I'll be next door then." I said nonchalantly.

Hinata looked up startled. "A-At Ino's?"

"Yup." I said turning from her and marching out the door before she could say anything more.

* * *

I pounded my fist on the door not caring that it was only 8:30 in the morning. Ino and Tenten were not morning people at all, and normally unless we had to go somewhere I wouldn't dream of waking them up. They deserved this though, and my anger was more than the two them could probably stand.

"What the hell do you want!?" Ino yelled as she ripped open the door. Her hair was still messy from sleep and she wore a pair of basketball shorts and an old volleyball t-shirt. Her eye makeup was smeared leading me to conclude they had gotten home late last night, and she had been to tired to try to wash it off.

For once I ignored her and pushed past her walking into the room. I walked over to Tenten's bed which had a long lump wrapped up in a blanket. I assumed this was Tenten and pulled the covers off.

"UGH!" Tenten shouted reaching around angrily for the blanket, until she realized it was on the floor and not the bed.

"What the fuck Sakura?" Ino said still standing by the door.

"What gives?" Tenten shouted angrily sitting up in bed.

"Wait! Sakura-chan!" Hinata came running into the room. She looked at Ino and Tenten who stared angrily at me. When she finally glanced towards me she bit her lip again and I swear she looked like she was going to cry. "I'm so sorry Sakura-chan. We should never have put that ad up, it...it was so mean. I told them...I should have done something...I...I'm so so s-s-sorry." She babbled putting her hands to her face.

How could I be fierce and angry? How could I stand up to my so called "best friends" when here was one of them **crying** and distraught over the very thing I was mad about. I couldn't. My heart nearly broke from seeing Hinata like that.

"Oh." Tenten said, anger disappearing from her face.

"That's what this is about?" Ino said. She frowned at Hinata and closed the door.

"Hina-chan..." I said quietly walking towards her to pat her on the back. She sniffled and looked at me sadly.

"Well it's no use crying Hinata." Ino said. "It wasn't your fault. Tenten said she wished there was a way we could get guys to notice you so they could ask you out. I thought the easiest way was to broadcast that you were interested. What better place than the school website? Where all the guys would check the sports scores and videos." Ino shrugged sitting down on her bed.

"Sorry Sakura." Tenten said she did look apologetic. Then again, Tenten was good at acting, very good actually, she was usually a leading role in the school plays and an avid participator in the drama club.

"So this was a way to "help" me?"I said making air quotes as I said help.

"Part of it was funny." Ino shrugged again.

"Whore."

"Ch. Bitch."

"Hey. Hey. Hey. How did you find out this soon anyway? We figured we'd have a day or two at least before you would go on the school website.

I stared at her a second. Then looked at Ino. "Deidara...He told me when I was in the lobby."

"WHAT?!" They said together. Hinata just stared wide eyed at me as she sat down on the edge of Ino's bed.

"What did he say about!?" Tenten said practically jumping up and down on her bed.

"He just said he saw it. And I was like what? And he showed me the ad...Then I left." I said.

"Ohmygosh! Do you think?" Tenten said stopping for a moment and looking deep into thought. Ino, Hinata, and her exchanged a look. Then their faces went blank and they looked back at me.

"Wait, wait. What was that look?" I said narrowing my eyes at them.

"What look?" Ino said.

"That look you all had...What are you thinking?" I said watching Hinata grab Tenten's laptop from the floor and open it.

Tenten sat on the other side of her and the three of them bent over the computer staring expectantly.

"Hello?"

Hinata began typing.

"What are you guys doing!?" I shouted feeling stupid. Here I was the subject of conversation and they ignore me!?

"NO WAY!" Ino said standing up and staring disbelievingly and the screen.

"Holy shit." Tenten whispered as Hinata just shook her head a little bit her eyes wide again.

"What?!" I shouted as I walked over to them and examined the screen.

"You got 57 replies to the ad." Hinata said.

"FIFTY SEVEN!" Ino said grabbing my shoulders and shaking me.

"Your joking right? You have to be joking." I stared at the screen a long list of "RE: Sakura Haruno, Homecoming Date". Hinata scrolled down showing all of them.

My eye twitched. I swear I heard a faint ticking sound in my ear.

Tick.

Tick.

BOOM!


	4. Chapter Three

**A/N: Here you go. Chapter 3! :) Thanks for reviewing/alerting/favoriting.**

**TeenageCrisis: This one's for you ;) haha. Your comment made me want to write more right when I got home. Thank you so much for reading! (and everyone else who has too.)  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or any of the characters.**

**

* * *

  
**

Day 9: Still.

So here I am, sitting in the far corner of the library with my laptop, hidden by some bookshelves .This was the one place I assumed would be safe considering the 57 email responses I got from that personal ad. This was turning into a big personal problem my friends felt they had to deal with. Without me. I had immediately been shoved out the room, and no matter how much I pounded on the door, they wouldn't let me in. I eventually stopped, realizing the noise would cause attention to myself that I really didn't want at the moment.

Maybe I was overreacting? Of course. The school was large, 57 people? That was hardly anything. I doubt many people other than them knew about the ad. Let alone cared enough to spot me in a crowd, or try to talk to me about it.

I am a paranoid freak though. Who hates taking risks. That is why I was hiding in the library, where honestly no one hardly goes to. Especially Sunday mornings, when they sleep in, and nurse hangovers.

I surfed the net for a while, but couldn't find anything distracting enough. I finally stood up and stretched a bit. Hmm. I had lasted exactly 26 minutes. That means I had left Ino, Tenten, and Hinata alone to count through emails for almost an two hours.

HOW LONG IS IT GOING TO TAKE!?!

I grabbed a random book from the shelf not looking. "Skills for Independent Living".Eh. Interesting? I opened to the table of contents and scanned its....well contents.

I flipped to page 30. "Deciding If Someone is a Friend". This better be good.

"A friend respects and likes you for who you are. They would also help you when you need help. A friend listens to whatever is bothering you and is fun to be with." That is down right intriguing.

"Most importantly, a true friend does not try to force you to do things you don't want to do." That struck a cord. Do I want my friends to put up a personal ad for me? No. Do I want my friends to force me to go to a dance? No. Do I want them to force me to go with someone? No.

"Hey Sakura! There you are." Tenten said dropping into the seat next to me. While Hinata smiled and sat quietly across from me. Leaving Ino to loudly complain at how annoying it is to have to search for me everywhere like a "Where's Waldo" book while she sat next to me.

"We need to discuss things" Tenten said business-like.

"What?" I said raising an eyebrow.

"Here's the thing." Ino said turning in her chair so her whole body was facing me. "And shut up until I finish, I hate when you interrupt."

I opened my mouth to hit her with a sarcastic retort, until she put her hand up and I realized I was about to interrupt her. I sat back in my chair and waved my hand in a way that meant "You may proceed.".

"We looked through all the emails, trust me it was hard. We got 22 more as we were looking through them. Leaving a total of 78 emails-"

"79, Ino-chan." Hinata said quietly. Ino paused and recalculated the simple math in her head again.

"Oh yeah, okay so 79 emails, and more are still coming in. Serious emails Sakura. They actually want you for their date to homecoming. Now some of them are from underclassmen so we weeded them out automatically. Also anyone really geeky and lame, or totally unattractive. And anyone else we knew you didn't like. Still the majority were basically good guys, some of them down right awesome and I have to say I'm a tiny bit jealous of you." She said and I realized then that Hinata was holding a stack of papers.

"What are those?"

"Well you see. We decided to make this a little...err...Contest? Game? I don't know. We consider it our personal little dating show. We will monitor the emails and select 14 eligible guys for you to date within this week. 8 have already been selected. Those are their applications." She said pointing to Hinata's small stack of papers.

"We'll pick the other 6 as the emails pour in." Tenten said taking Hinata's papers and sliding them towards me.

"Once we find one we like we'll add them to The List. The 8 we already picked have been notified of the contest and have been given your phone number and email address. We also put the information on your personal ad for all new applicants." Hinata said nodding her head.

"..."

"It'll be perfect, guys love competition." Tenten smiled.

"Just look at who's on the list!" Ino said shoving the papers in front of me.

"I'm not doing this."

"Yes you are."

"This is all made up anyway!"

"So is Homecoming." Hinata shrugged.

I stared at them. It finally occurred to me. Did I want to be **forced** to participate in this little contest? Definitely not.

I had no friends.

* * *

Day 8

I found out I couldn't say no to this "game". I had to accept., because the guys would find **me**. The "friends" of mine had specifically told them this. I brooded over this for a while but decided to get over it and ignore this whole game. I didn't even bother to look at the eight boys already selected for The List. I had thrown them into the drawer in my desk.

I examined myself in the mirror. White blouse, green vest, green plaid skirt, plain black mary janes, with high white socks ending just below my knee. Yup, my uniform was all in order. I tied a green ribbon into my short hair like a head band. (**A/N: Where her ninja headband would be.**)

I grabbed my brown messenger bag and slung it over my shoulder so that the strap crossed my chest and the bag rested on my opposite hip. I blinked at myself, satisfied and left the room.

* * *

First class: Advanced Chemistry.

The only good thing about this was that Shikamaru was my lab partner. As I walked into class I already spotted him his head resting face down in his arms on the black topped table we shared in the middle of the class room.

I scooted my chair back loudly from the table before I sat down, receiving a groan from Shikamaru.

"Morning Shika-kun." I said cheerily.

"Ehh. Morning Sakura-chan." He said rubbing his eye with his fist, reminding me of a little kid waking up from his nap.

I smiled at him as the bell rang and Kurenai-sensei stood up from her desk.

* * *

I went through the motions of class mechanically, hardly paying attention. It was difficult when you wondered if anyone would notice you. I briefly thought about dying my strawberry blonde hair a normal color, like brown. No, I couldn't bare to mess with my hair. Therefore I have no discovered I can not be a convicted felon on the run, because they frequently change their appearance to avoid being caught.

Classes flew by in a blur until lunch. I walked with Shikamaru down the hallway. I noticed a decent looking junior boy staring at me from his group of friends. He smiled and nudged his friend with his elbow, who followed his gaze and I passed. I didn't look back at them.

I just hurried into the cafeteria...Where I got more stares. Shikamaru trudged through the lunch line with his tray weighing his choices as I stared down at my tray as if it was the most interesting tray in the entire world. There was a small crack in the left corner. It was a blue, no lighter. Maybe a cerulean blue. Like the color of Naruto's eyes.

Tap. Tap. On my shoulder.

I turned my head and stared at the culprit. This boy looked younger than me. Probably a freshmen by the looks of his acne. He grinned at me. "Sakura right?" He said.

I didn't like the look of his grin, it was sleazy or arrogant, I couldn't decide. It made me uneasy and I sidestepped down the line grabbing a fruit salad and a small plastic pouch of french fires. "Your a underclassmen right?" I asked keeping my face turned towards the upcoming choices of food ahead of me.

"Uh, yeah I'm a sophomore."

"Sorry, then you should know underclassmen aren't allowed to be put on the list."

"But-" He started reaching his hand to touch my upper arm in an attempted to turn me to face him and plead his case.

"Sorry, those are the rules." I said hastily shrugging him off and paying for my food. I was vaguely aware of Shikamaru raising his eyebrow at me.

We decided to eat outside since it was warm enough and even though I didn't admit it I didn't want any run ins with people from the list, or applying for the list.

"What was that about?"

"What was what about?"

"That sophomore kid, talking to you."

"Oh, it was nothing." I shrugged trying to channel some of Tenten's acting skills. "Where's Choji?"

"He's doing an extra credit project for his Foods class." Shikamaru said unwrapping his sandwich and eying me carefully as he took a bite.

"Oh what's he making?" I said stabbing a piece of lettuce with my plastic fork.

"Your lying."

"What?" Damn it, I suck at this.

"Your lying to me it wasn't nothing, what was that guy talking to you about."

"What guy?" I said, determined not to give in.

"The sophomore in the lunch line. What's 'the list' and 'the rules' to said list?" He said as he casually taking another bite.

"It...Uh...Well...It wasn't me!" I said struggling for a way to explain.

"What?"

"...This personal ad got put up of me on the school website, for a homecoming date, and 14 guys will get on the list and then I have to go on a date with them and choose at the end of the week. Ino, Tenten, and Hinata made it."

He dropped his sandwich on his tray and ran his hand over his face. "Are you kidding me Sakura. They did this?" He sighed loudly and stared at me. "I told you it was too troublesome trying to be friends with popular girls like them. Now look what you've gotten into."

"They meant well..." I said in a small voice. Shikamaru had never approved much of my friend choices, except possibly Hinata, because she was quiet therefore less troublesome.

"They meant well? Well now your in a mess. Do you know how many guys have seen the ad?"

"No..."

"A lot."

"How'd you know?" I said surprised. Had he known the whole time?

"I heard about it from Naruto. He was talking about it this morning in the hallway outside our rooms, I heard a lot of other guys talking about it too, and them staring at you. They saw your picture, trust me a lot of them plan on making that list. If they don't...Jeez, I'm sure they aren't going to follow 'the rules' to this little game, Sakura-chan." He said sighing again and picking up his sandwich.

"What do you mean they saw my picture? I don't get why this is so big!?" I said exasperated.

"Sakura, a girl broadcasting herself to a bunch of guys? Come on. You've gone from relatively unnoticed to thrust in the spotlight. All these guys hear about you at once and see your picture, and they all have the same opinion. Your hot, and they want to be the one to have you."

"Are...Are you serious?" I said. That was insane.

Shikamaru just shrugged. "Expect to be bombarded by fanboys."

Hot. Hot? Me? Two days ago, if you had asked someone if I was hot, they would have said "Who?". Now according to Shikamaru I was the it thing. The girl to be with. A hot commodity. Wait, did he say Naruto? One of the most popular guys in school, one of my childhood friends, thought I was hot?

* * *

**A/N: I don't really feel like writing too much about the characters actually in class. So forgive me if there are a few time gaps were I skip to lunch or after class rather than going through each one which can be a bit tedious.**

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	5. Chapter Four

**A/N: OMGSH! I want to thank you guys sooooo much for reviewing/favoriting/alerting! T.T **

**I'm so sorry for not posting yesterday, but I was at a friend's house and we went to the movies. :/**

**Plus right now my mom is making me help her decorate our Christmas Tree.**

**Anyway I'm going to had you Chapter Four! :) Please R/R.**

**Oh and Shino's stuff I got of Wikipedia (haha)**

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**Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto!**

**also.**

A*v*a*l*o*n*the*reader7843: **Your comment made me so happy! Thank you sooo much! That's the best compliment I could ask for! T.T happy tears of joy.**

**Also if anyone cares I'll probably update Hello Again tonight, along with 14 guys in 7 days. :)**

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Day 7: Let the games begin.

I felt faint. I think. I've never actually fainted before. So this is the feeling I would imagine is coupled with fainting It felt like my head was going to float off my body, and then added with the feeling you get when your on a roller-coaster. You go down a large hill and suddenly your stomach is in your throat and you can feel the restraint holding you down because your half off your seat just floating in midair, defying gravity.

Not a fun feeling to have when your standing in front of your mirror in your dorm room trying to gain the courage to walk out the door and face the world, or at the least, your school

"Shino Aburame, Kankuro, Rock Lee, Sai, Kabuto, Haku, and Gaara. They were the eight members that already made the list. I sighed, some of them seemed...alright. Others...seemed worthy of an immediate rejection.

_Knock Knock_

"Come in!"

The door creaked open and in strutted Tenten and Ino. Hinata had already rushed off for class early today.

"Hey, you ready?" Tenten said smiling.

"Day 7, it all begins as soon as you step out of this room." Ino said walking over to me.

"One question, before I'm forced to go through with this." I said not looking at them.

"What?" Tenten said cocking her head to the side.

"WHO THE HELL PUT LEE ON THE LIST?!?!?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU! DID YOU READ HIS APPLICATION?!" I said shaking with fury, Ino beside me was also. Well, I was shaking her with fury...It still counts.

_Name: Rock Lee!_

_ Year: Junior!_

_ Qualities: HANDSOME AND STRONG!_

_ Interests: Sakura-chan! And Running! I'm on the track team! :D_

_Extra: I WOULD LOVE TO TAKE THE BEAUTIFUL SAKURA-CHAN TO THE DANCE! SHE IS A BEAUTIFUL CHERRY BLOSSOM BLOOMING MORE BEAUTIFULLY THEN ANY OTHER BLOSSOM! I WOULD GIVE HER ETERNAL HAPPINESS!_

"Aww, Sakura-chan, he's really sweet! Besides you know he's genuinely liked you since we were twelve! I couldn't say no to him!" Tenten said pulling me away from Ino who was shouting about wrecking her perfect hair, not that I was really listening to her. I had learned to block out the complaining early on in our friendship.

"I don't care! I'm going to say no!" I shouted.

"Give him a try at least Sakura!" Tenten pleaded. Remember how I said Tenten was a great actress? She really is. She begged me with all her might, and that is a lot of might.

I just grumbled and left the room.

* * *

"Oy! Sakura-chan!" I felt my shoulders tighten, as I turned to face the source.

Kankuro stood in front of me smiling. What did he put on his application again? I thought for a second, oh yeah, this is the self proclaimed "hot senior" who could provide me with "a good time". Oh yeah, he actually put that. Complete with a suggestive winky face. It was almost disgusting.

He walked up. I stood in shock just staring at him.

His face was covered in an intricate design of thick purple lines.

"Hey Sakura-chan!" He said grinning at me.

"What's wrong with your face?" I said not being able to tear my eyes away from it and look him in the eye like a normal polite person.

He stared at me for a moment, blinking. "It's just makeup."

"Oh. Thank God!" I said a little too loudly.

"...I was actually going to get it permanently tattooed..."

"I'm sorry, I'm going to have to formally decline your offer as a homecoming date." I said, turning away from him before he could say something else and continuing to walk to first period. One down, 13 more to go.

* * *

I managed to ignore everyone on my way to class and make my way to sit next to Shikamaru. I noted how exceptionally annoyed he looked as he stared at his text book.

"Hey Shika-kun. What's wrong?" I said sitting down and pulling out my text book too. Gosh I hope there isn't a quiz or something.

He looked up and stared at me with the same annoyed look. "Everyone keeps bugging me." He said flatly, turning back to his book.

"Bugging your about what? People normally leave you alone." I said. Then I suddenly got a bad feeling, I could tell that downward hill on the roller-coaster was coming again wasn't it?

"Every guy in my dorm hall was trying to talk to me about **you**."

"What!?"

"Apparently because I'm one of your close friends, I can set you up with them. Ugh. It's so troublesome." He sighed. "Honestly, though, I think their partially right. You could use my help in choosing these guys."

"Eh...Your...Your going to help me pick a homecoming date Shika?" I said. I stared at him for a moment my mouth open a little bit. Shikamaru Nara. He rarely ever helped me. At least without complaining, bribery, or because me annoying him about it was less annoying than him doing it. Now he was offering. He. Was. Offering. To. Help. Willingly.

"AWW SHIKA-KUN! YOUR THE BEST!" I said jumping at him and wrapping my arms around his neck in a big hug.

"GAH! Sakura get off!" He said surprised by my sudden outburst. I took this moment to appropriately realize that everyone in class was watching us. Even Kurenai-sensei.. A few people snickered as Shikamaru carefully unwrapped my arms and gave them back to me.

"Oh sorry." I said feeling my face get hot because of the stares, and because I realized I just assaulted Shikamaru a little bit.

He rolled his eyes. "Whatever, but yes I'll help you, as long as you don't do that again. Troublesome woman." He grumbled. I elbowed him in the side while the bell rang drowning out his cry of pain.

* * *

The bell rang for lunch and I stood up stretched my arms above my head and followed Shikamaru out the door.

"Sakura." A voice said quietly as I stepped into the hallway. I cringed as I heard my name. This was going to get annoying. I held out my hand to stop Shikamaru and turned around to face the next of the 8.

"Shino, right?" I said. Thank goodness. I remembered him from when we were kids, he was normally pretty quiet, but he seemed nice enough.

"Yes." He said. He was wearing the same small black sunglasses he usually wore and his school uniform was in perfect alignment, unlike Shikamaru, who was holding his blazer over his shoulder and had his shirt untucked with the first two and last two buttons undone. I normally pointed out his sloppy appearance but he would just shrug and say it was to troublesome to button everything properly. What a lazy ass.

"Hi." I said nervously, I could feel Shikamaru standing behind me. What a good friend. * tear *

"Hello. I was wondering if you would like to have lunch with me." He said. I liked his voice, it was calm and even, not loud or obnoxious. I glanced back at Shikamaru who only nodded his approval and turned and walked away into the rest of the crowd.

"Sure, that'd be great." I said and Shino immediately stepped forward walking alongside of me.

* * *

We sat down at a picnic table in the courtyard to eat alone. It turns out he prefers to be outside rather than inside the school, which I liked. Also, I could see Shikamaru and Choji a few tables away, which was comforting, because I haven't really had much experience with boys at all.

Shino opened up a cup of strawberry yogurt and piled a perfectly measured bite on his spoon. "So...what kind of stuff are you into, Shino-san?" I asked politely.

He sat there for a minute and licked the yogurt from his spoon. I felt pretty awkward, just waiting for his reply. Did he hear me? I couldn't tell, he just sat there licking his yogurt, then he set his spoon down.

"Insects."

I stared at him for a second. "I-Insects?"

"Yes."

"...Really."

"I'm going to be an entomologist."

"What do they do?" I said, suddenly not wanting to hear. Bugs made me squirm even talking about them. I glanced at Shikamaru's table. Choji was demolishing a bag of potato chips and Shikamaru was nibbling on his sandwich saying something to Choji.

"It's the scientific study of insects, branched off from anthropology. It deals a lot with biology."

He said going on, "You know, there are 1.3 million described species of insects. They account for 2/3 of all known organisms."

I stared at Shikamaru's table again. He was watching me and taking bites of his sandwich now. I gave him a look. You know those looks your friends give you across the room that mean, "Oh my god! Help me now! Fake a heart attack! Pretend to be a ninja kidnapping me! ANYTHING!" Yeah that's right I gave him an "OmghmnfhaptbnkmA! look". Shikamaru smirked at me and said something to Choji, who just nodded as he put another handful of chips into his mouth and munched happily. Then Shikamaru stood up and started walking towards me.

"Gil Grissom, from CSI, the Las Vegas version, is an entomologist."

"That's interesting." I said nodding and stirring my salad around with my fork.

"Sakura!" Shikamaru said loudly as he reached the edge of my table. Shikamaru turned to Shino, who just politely stared back at him, or I assume so, who can tell with those sunglasses on? "Sorry Shino, I have to steal Sakura-chan, we need to finish our Advanced Chemistry project."

Shino just nodded. "I see. Thank you for you time Sakura-san. I enjoyed your company."

Shikamaru waited as I grabbed my bag and said good bye to Shino.

I through my tray out and we walked back to the school. Shikamaru didn't say anything, just trudged along with his hands in his pockets.

As soon as we entered the building however I lunged at him. "Thank you so much!" I said hugging him tightly.

"Sakura! Get off, or I won't help you again!" He said trying to lean out of my grasp. I loosened my grip and stared at him.

"You have no idea. He didn't talk. And when he did, it was about bugs." I said shivering as if the memory was terrible, when in fact it hadn't been that bad. I couldn't date Shino though, no way. I hated bugs. They were disgusting and frequently snuck up on me making me scream.

Shikamaru shrugged and started walking down the hall. I quickly followed. "And then Kankuro came up to me today! He said he wants to get those purple lines permanently tattooed! I'm sorry but I can't date someone with obnoxious face tattoos. Especially purple ones! And he didn't seem very serious at all about dating me. He actually put that he would show me a great time on his application! What were Ino, Tenten, and Hinata thinking when they picked these guys!" I stopped ranting for a moment. Shikamaru was making a weird muffling noise and his face was turned away from me.

"What's wrong Shika-kun?" I asked confused.

Then he turned to me and burst into laughter. His shoulders shaking. "You Sakura. You're hilarious." He said shaking his head.

Well thank goodness SOMEONE finds my situation hilarious.


	6. Chapter Five

**Here you are my beautiful, amazing, awesome, readers.**

**It's a bit short, but I need to write my entire rough draft of my research paper tonight.**

**Yikes. I should get on that right?**

**Anyway I hope you enjoy it.**

**Also I STILL do not own Naruto. Not that I'm trying to or anything. haha.  
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Day 6: The more the merrier.

Period: 2

Location: Water Fountain

*Sigh * So there I was taking my sweet ass time getting a drink of water. Not that I don't like Kakashi-sensei's Creative Writing class. It's just Kabuto is in it also, which is why I was drinking some lukewarm metallic tasting water from the drinking fountain two halls down from the class I'm supposed to be in, because hey, this game my friends have me playing is really not fun.

I have compiled a list of reasons why I am going to reject Kabuto as my Homecoming date.

Reason 1: He stole Shikamaru's seat next to me.

Reason 2: He has dorky Harry Potter glasses. Big turn off.

Reason 3: He's a little bit annoying and wouldn't let me concentrate on class. Not that Kakashi really teaches much, or cares if we talk or leave the room for extended periods of time. In fact he leaves the room for extended periods of time...A lot.

Reason 4: Remember how he said he wanted to go in to the medical field like I did? I figured he wanted to become some sexy brain surgeon. No. He wants to be a male nurse. And although it is cruel to laugh at them. It is a bit ridiculous.

Reason 5: I'm really not attracted to him at all and cannot even begin to want to hold a conversation with him, which is probably why we haven't talked ever.

Thus ends my list of reasons why Kabuto is a FAIL as a date.

Anyway, I started walking back to class because if Tsunadae-sama caught me in the hall she would send me back along with a detention.

* * *

I sat back down at my seat in class wondering how the hell I was going to last another forty minutes of Kabuto's insistent babbling, when I noticed Ino walking by the open classroom door staring at me. Then Tenten walked by staring. Then Hinata.

Then Ino walked in the other direction past the door, still staring. Tenten walked by. Then Hinata.

Then Ino walked by again, the other two following.

What the hell?

I glanced around the room to see if anyone else had noticed this odd occurrence. Shikamaru was staring at them walk by for the fifth time before he sighed and laid down on his desk to sleep.

I looked back at the door way. Ino was now making wild gestures at me but then she disappeared from view. Tenten walked by continuing on with the gestures. Then Hinata trudged along just blinking and waving her hand a little bit at me.

Ino then started making loud coughing noises. I stared blankly at her. Which proceeded to piss her off because she stopped their little line and started jumping a bit and pointing at me and then herself and then pointing down the hallway over and over again.

Oh. Yeah. I gotcha. I nodded and glanced and Kakashi whose face was hidden behind an orange book. Just then Kabuto poked me with his pencil and opened his mouth to say something. I just held up my hand and grabbed a piece of paper from my notebook. I quickly scribbled "**No.**" and walked out of the room.

* * *

Location: Library

"SAKURA! BAKA! Why did it take you so long to figure out what we were trying to tell you? Aren't you supposed to be the smartest girl in school or something?!" Ino shouted loudly.

"You guys looked like idiots just walking by the door over and over again!" I yelled back defensively.

"Hey. Calm down you two, this is a library." Tenten said looking at Ino and then me.

"Fine." We said together.

"What did you guys want?" I said not that I cared much, it was probably something really dumb, it always was. Remember when we were in this exact place two days ago and they had proposed this stupid way for me to get a date in the first place? At least I had an excuse to get away from Kabuto.

"We have a few new guys added to the list." Tenten said. I noticed Ino's eye twitching slightly.

"Who is it?" I said my eyes on Ino, she looked like she was going to explode.

"Umm...Well." Hinata started slowly. "Kiba-kun..." Ino's eye was now violently twitching. "Well, Kiba-kun...and...and...Sasuke-kun." Hinata finished slinking down in her chair.

"SAKURA YOU BITCH! HOW COULD YOU?!" Ino screamed jumping from her chair.

Tenten leaped up and wrapped her arms around Ino, restraining her and pulling her back down to her chair. "Ino, calm down, it isn't Sakura's fault. She didn't put the add up, or choose the list!"

I was a bit, okay a TON terrified of Ino at the moment and I was leaning so far away from her I fell out of my chair and onto the floor. Not that I would ever admit to the pig that she scared me.

After a minute of Hinata helping me pick myself up off the floor and Tenten calming Ino down we were all sitting around the round table staring at each other like civilized people. Well Ino was still glaring at me, but I just avoided her direct gaze and stared at the spot between her eyes. She would never know.

The realization hit me like a train. And not a train that's on the tracks and you can hear the loud whistle and the rumbling of it or anything. I'm talking about your just strolling along down a path in the park, which is located next to a pond. And out of no where a train comes barreling out of the water and hits you.

You never. Saw it. Coming.

I fell out of my chair all over again and on to the floor as every muscle in my body did a weird spasm. I was probably having a seizure, in fact I'm almost positive I was foaming at the mouth.

"S-S-SASUKE-KUN?" I said writhing around on the ground.

"Yes you epileptic whore! Adorable, funny, cuddly Kiba-kun. And MY Sasuke dumpling are now ON THE LIST" Ino shouted at me.


	7. Chapter Six

Day 6: The continuation.

I couldn't think. A few minutes after Ino had called me an "Epileptic whore" I was still laying on the floor in silence. I didn't know what to **do.** I honestly didn't know if I could even move after the violent seizure I had just experienced.

"...Sakura-chan?" Hinata said looking down at me. I could tell by her expression she was wondering if I was hurt. I didn't respond. I couldn't even form a thought, I think the mention of me and Sasuke possibly dating, was enough to paralyze my brain and put me in a coma.

Hinata's face turned back up towards the table, "Um...She isn't moving Ten-chan?"

"Good..." I heard Ino huff angrily.

Tenten was suddenly standing over me looking down. I blinked. "She's alive. If she wasn't she couldn't go on a date with Sasuke-kun." Tenten said smirking as I twitched a little bit.

"Come on you have to get to class." She said grabbing my hand and pulling me up, which I wasn't sure if that was a good idea, I might have brain damage you know.

"Hmph." Was all I managed before I was ushered out of the library.

* * *

Period: 3

Location: College Math Room

Teacher: Asuma-sensei

I stared at the chalkboard for a few more moments before I got a nudge from Shikamaru on my right hand side. "You alright?" He whispered staring down at my empty notebook.

"Ehh..." I said ignoring the question as best as I could. I wasn't sure if I could talk about what had just happened in the library, at least so soon, I didn't know how I would react. I pointed to his empty notebook. "What about you?"

"...Sakura I never take notes. You know that, your just avoiding my question."

Damn it. He caught me. I hate how I couldn't lie to Shikamaru. "It's nothing, I'll tell you-"

"Haruno! Nara! Pay attention!" Asuma shouted from the front of the room. I cringed and turned to face forward again. Honestly, Asuma-sensei wasn't even qualified for this job. Shikamaru was smarter then him. He wasn't even a math teacher! He was a P.E. Teacher up until Anko took up the class. Plus Asuma-sensei was usually caught smoking. IN THE MIDDLE OF CLASS! Is that even legal? Tsundae-sama sometimes caught him and took away his supply. Those were the worst days to be in his class.

". . .later." I finished quickly.

"HARUNO! Five laps around the school!" He shouted pointing the chalk at me so ferociously that it flew across the room and smashed into the far wall ending with a "Poof."

"But sensei-"

"Now!"

"Eep!" I managed as I jumped up from my chair, grabbed my things and hurried out of class. Today was one of those days.

* * *

I walked out into the courtyard and sat down at a picnic table. Like I was actually going to run around the school. Pfft.

"Sakura? What are you doing here?" A girl sat down across from me. Jeez, she was pretty. She had long brown hair and perfect skin.

"Uhm, Asuma-sensei kicked me out of class."

"Oh, Tsunadae-sama took away his cigarettes this morning." She said nodding.

"I'm sorry. Do I...er...Know you?" I asked. Which earned me a laugh and the sweetest smile.

"Hm, I guess not." She said. "I'm Haku." My brain froze for a second there. Now wait what did she(/he?) say again?

"Y-Y-Your H-Haku?" I stammered. Now I was sounding like Hinata.

"Yes. Is something wrong?" She(/he?) asked sincerely.

"Y-Y-Your. I think there's a m-mistake."

"What do you mean?"

"Your a girl." I blurted out without thinking. However in my defense I will say that I couldn't think right even if I had tried, possible brain damage. This is why I can't be popular. I just can't keep my mouth shut sometimes! I immediately though "Shit, I shouldn't have said that." Which made me immediately say.

"Shit, I shouldn't have said that." I paused realizing I had spoken out loud again. "I mean. I'm sorry. That was rude. I shouldn't have-"

Haku just answered me with a giggle and another sweet smile. "Oh it's alright Haruno-san. Don't worry about it... I am a boy though, since your wondering."

"That sucks." I blurted out again. "I mean for you! Uh! I'm not a lesbian or anything! I mean, not that I have a problem with that, it's just, wow you must get that a lot. And that must suck right? High school can be cruel enough, and it's hard to find friends without something like that. I mean not that you don't have friends! I'm sure you do! Uh. I..I'll be your friend! Don't think I'm just saying that to make up for calling you a girl! I...I should shut up..."

Haku just sat there staring at me while I rambled on helpless. And when I say helpless I mean no one could have stopped me from looking like a complete bitch/jackass right then and there, not even myself.

"Sakura, I would love to be your friend. But maybe, we should just stay friends..." Haku said slowly. I really admired this guy(/girl?). I had completely insulted him(/her?) and he(/she?) hadn't blown up in my face or anything. I would have punched a guy all the way to Suna if I he had mistaken me for a boy. Even though I'm sure that's hard to do with the whole pink hair thing.

"Oh. Okay. I'm so sorry, really." I said but Haku put his(/her?) hand up to stop me from continuing, which was probably the best thing.

"It's alright, Haruno-san."

* * *

Period: 4

Location: Art Room #2

Teacher: Gai

After the completely awkward turn of events I moved on to my art class. I really didn't want to go, because Art wasn't exactly an advanced class. Therefore, a lot of people I usually didn't see all day were in this class with me. i.e. Sasuke-kun, who I have always used this class to check out, and Naruto-kun, who has always used this time to annoy me. Of course Tenten, Neji, Kiba, Shikamaru, Hinata, and Sai were also in this class. Four guys that were on the list, plus two of my friends who put them there, and Shikamaru . My only real friend. Throw in a possibly insane completely unconventional teacher a.k.a Gai-sensei and this was sure to shape up to be a fantastically uncomfortable hour.

I walked into class and sat in my usual spot in between Shikamaru and Hinata. The desks weren't really desks, more like 4 rows, each one continuous desktop. I did this just as Gai-sensei skipped through the doorway in his usual green spandex one-piece twirling around some paint brushes that thankfully were not coated in wet paint.

"Good Morning Class!" He said smiling and giving us all a thumbs up.

"Good morning Gai-sensei..." The class mumbled.

"Now Class! In the Spirit of Youthfulness, we will have new seating arrangements!" He said smiling and giving us two thumbs up now.

I gulped. Didn't I mention **four** guys on the list were in my class. Including Sasuke? Not to mention I won't be sitting by possibly the only two people who actually care about me, and that are good friends. I gulped again.

Gai-sensei drew a makeshift map of each desk in the classroom on the chalkboard. Then he proceeded to randomly select students and place them in equally random spots. He then turned around to give us all a full view of the seating chart, which caused a few whoops and grumbles from various people as they discovered who they would be stuck next to.

I couldn't believe it. I was able to get to my new seat in the back row somehow. On my left was Sasuke-kun and to my right was Naruto-kun.

This is like grade school all over again.

"Sakura-chan I'm so glad I get to sit by you! We haven't had many classes together!" Naruto said smiling as he took his seat, he then raised his eyebrow at the raven haired boy sitting on my other side. "Oy Sasuke-teme! Your sitting by Sakura-chan too? This is like grade school!" He exclaimed.

I groaned inwardly and looked around the room to see if I was close to anyone else. As soon as I looked up Tenten turned around from the seat in front of me, her smile was huge. Neji sat down next to her and Shikamaru was on her other side.

I breathed a sigh of relief, I wouldn't have to brave this alone! I thought this just as Shikamaru slumped forward on his desk to take a nap. Then I realized how much of a help he really would be.

Hinata was sitting in the front row across the room next to Kiba and Sai. She gave me a small wave and turned back toward Kiba who was telling her a story enthusiastically and making Hinata giggle.

"Sakura-chan!" Tenten said waving her hand in front of my face. I jerked out of my thoughts and looked at her.

"Huh?"

"Pay attention space cadet! I was asking you what guys you've crossed off The List yet." She said smiling.

I just stared at her. Really? She HAD to ask me this in THE MIDDLE OF CLASS while I was sitting my UCHIHA SASUKE?! "Uhm. I've already crossed out the four I've talked to." I said my voice quiet. _God I hope this is one of those times Sasuke doesn't pay attention to anything I'm saying._

"Really Sakura-chan? Which guys did you cross off?" Naruto said. I resolved to kill him.

"Erm...Shino, Kabuto, Kankuro, and Haku." I mumbled shooting daggers and Tenten with my eyes as I said the last name.

"Okay, so you still have; Lee, Sai, Gaara, Kiba, and Sasuke-kun. Right?" Tenten said as she counted each name on her fingers.

"Oh I have an idea Ten-chan!" Naruto said loudly.

"What?"

"Sakura-chan should sit at our table for lunch! That way she could get to know Sasuke-teme and Kiba-kun!" He exclaimed clearly proud of his idea.

I couldn't believe it._ THEIR TABLE?! WHAT! I CAN'T SIT THERE! I'VE BEEN AVOIDING THAT TABLE FOR THE PAST 6 YEARS! _I begged Tenten to say that it wasn't a good idea. Please Please PLEASE LET HER BE A GOOD FRIEND!

"That's a great idea Naruto-kun!" Tenten said high-fiving him.

"Tenten!" I couldn't keep it in any longer. "That is **not** a good idea!"

Then I realized Neji, Sasuke, Naruto, and Tenten were all staring at me. _Oh Kami, Oh jeez. Please strike me down right here._

"Why not Sakura-chan?" Tenten asked in her innocent voice. I cursed her acting abilities.

"Yeah Sakura-chan, I thought it was great." Naruto said looking kind of sad that I shot his idea down.

I stared at Tenten, because face it I couldn't face one of the guys; Naruto's big blue puppy dog eyes, Neji's big lavender eyes that reminded me of Hinata, or especially Sasuke's dark onyx eyes. I thought of the quickest excuse I could think of that didn't necessarily apply to The List.

"What about Ino?" I asked.

Tenten's eyes widened a moment. _GOTCHA NOW!_

"What about Ino-chan?" Naruto asked.

"Well. Uhm. Ino-chan..." I couldn't exactly explain it to the guys.

The thing is Ino is a bit insecure. Tell her that and she'll kill you, but she is. I think that's why she doesn't care that I don't want to be popular. She doesn't want the competition, because though she won't admit it, she's told me on multiple occasions that she's jealous of me for various reasons.

Example 1: When she said she wished she had my figure because she thought she was fat. Even though we were the same sizes and often trade clothes.

Example 2: When she said she wished she had my eyes because she hated hers. Even though they are one of the prettiest shades of blue I've ever seen.

Now, if I told the guys this, it wouldn't go well. Also I can't tell them Ino would stab me in the eye with a plastic knife if she saw me sitting in her territory to get closer to Kiba and Sasuke.

"Let's just say I don't want to die today." I said shrugging and letting my hair cover my face a bit.

"Hm, you have a point Sakura-chan." Tenten said as she tapped her chin thoughtfully with her index finger. "I'll take care of it though. Don't worry." She smiled at me and I wanted to lunge at her from across the desk. As I contemplated this, Gai-sensei got the classes attention and Neji and her turned around.

He babbled on about impressionists and then put on a biography movie about some famous artist.

He shut off the lights.

There I was.

In the dark.

Sitting next to Sasuke-kun.

In the back of the room.


	8. Chapter Seven

**A/N: Oh no! This chapter is sooo short!**

**I'm so sorry T.T**

**I wore my contacts today and my one eye is all irritated so its watering like crazy and I'm currently squinting it closed and using only my right eye**

**to type. :/ **

**Maybe I should get an eyepatch? Or a ninja headband and wear mine like Kakashi.**

**That would be cooler. :)**

**Anyway, this chapter is a little pervy. Sorry if you hate it because it's stupid and lame and unfunny.**

**But I'm crappy and unfunny so I apologize, I can only offer a long chapter tomorrow (Saturday) as a way to make up for it. **

**Also I don't feel like rereading this to proofread. how lazy and horrible I know. I'm so sorry, i still love you guys so much. T.T  
**

I shifted a bit uncomfortably as I sat there in the back of the dark classroom next to two of my childhood friends, one of which was a gorgeous sex god. I let my bangs hang over my face a bit so I could sneak a peek at the rest of the class as they watched the movie.

I stared a head of me calculating the distance between Neji and Tenten. I knew Tenten was interested in Neji, but whenever the topic was brought up she usually evaded it easily or played up her innocence like the thought was ridiculous. Honestly it was always believable to me, but Ino insisted they like each other.

I didn't really hang around the two of them together to notice anything, so I decided to use art as a way to spy on them.

Shikamaru I noticed was still sleeping. He didn't really care for art much and had only taken it for two reasons.

So he could slack off.

So he could make sure our schedules in other classes matched up.

I finally tilted my head to the right a little bit and peered between the strands of pink hair at Sasuke-kun.

I had to say, he was looking fine.

And not "Fine" as in health, or even just "fine" as in attractive. I meant fine as in "FFFFINNNEEEEE!" He was looking all sexy in his cool laid back way that I loved.

He wasn't paying attention to the video and instead was doodling on the otherwise empty page his notebook was open to. I tilted my head a bit more to get a better look at his paper. Just then he pulled his mechanical pencil to the top of the page and wrote something.

Curiosity was killing me as he wrote everything with a deliberate slowness as if biding for some time. As a result to this curiosity I tilted my head even more, but a thick piece of hair fell in my line of sight.

Annoyed I tilted my head even more until it shifted out of place, now my head was at a completely horizontal angle.

Sasuke set his pencil on top of the notebook and slowly slid it in front of me as he looked up at the movie.

**Nosy, much Sakura-chan?**

My heart fluttered and I righted the angle of my head. I looked at him normally, but he was still staring at the movie playing at the front of the classroom. I thought I saw a faint smirk play on his lips but I couldn't be sure.

I picked up the pencil slowly and looked at the rest of the paper. There was a small doodle of a bowl of ramen at the bottom corner of the page.

_Sorry I wanted to see what you were drawing. Ramen? Is Naruto-kun really rubbing off on you?_

I slid the notebook and pencil back towards him.

**I wasn't done with it, and no he definitely hasn't.**

I was still in shock that I was sitting next to him and passing notes with Sasuke, so I reread the three lines at the top of the page. His perfect block print and my bubbly girly hand writing with loopy y's and g's. A realization dawned on me.

_Omg. I just realized how dirty what I wrote sounded! I totally didn't mean that!_

Sasuke stared at what I had wrote and I saw his eyes move to my previous line. He raised an eyebrow at me.

**Pervert.**

That was all he wrote.

OH. MY. GOSH. NOW UCHIHA SASUKE THINKS I'M A PERVERT (and a possible yaoi lover).

_I am not! Besides, you obviously are too, since you understood what I meant._

**Understood what you meant about Naruto beating off to me? What teenager wouldn't get ****that reference? Your falsely accusing me, when you are clearly the closet pervert here.**

I got a bit flustered at that and let out a small exasperated sigh.

_Bitch, don't accuse me of being a closet pervert when your clearly trying to divert the attention from your pervertedness onto me!_

I slid the notebook back to him, triumphant with my lame rebuttle. I suddenly realized that I wasn't passing notes with Ino, I was passing notes with Sasuke. Did I just....

**Excuse me, did you seriously just call me a bitch?**

STUPID BRAIN! My face flushed a bright pink shad I knew could rival my hair.

_Uhm. Yes?_

**That's what I thought.**

_...I'm sorry?_

I moved to slide it back to Sasuke but just then I was intercepted by Naruto. Somehow he managed to grab the entire notebook away from me. He was reading through it his brow furrowed. Then his eyes went wide and I cringed. He scribbled furiously on the paper and pushed it between Sasuke and I so we could read it as he glared angrily.

_**I'M NOT GAY! AND I DON'T BEAT OFF TO SASUKE-TEME! STOP TALKING ABOUT ME IN YOUR STUPID FLIRTY NOTES!**_

**Shut up dobe.**

_We aren't flirting, and your getting so defensive I'm beginning to doubt your claim._

Sasuke smirked as the the two boys read what I wrote and he pulled the notebook towards him before Naruto could write another angry message.

**Naruto-****kun****, I don't care if you are gay, just don't pay Said to draw any yaoi of us together .**

He slid it to Naruto and I just as the bell rang, giving me the leave to burst into laughter.

"Shut up teme! I wouldn't do that!" Naruto huffed offended.

Tenten raised her eyebrow at me as she turned around dropping her books in her book bag and slinging it over her shoulder. She smirked at me but I pretended not to notice it because I was half embarrassed and half shocked I had just boldly flirted with Sasuke via notes.

Neji, Sasuke, and Naruto all walked slowly out of the room as Tenten and I waited for Hinata.

She walked over to us clutching her books to her chest and smiling.

"So what was that about Sakura-chan?" Hinata asked still smiling at me.

"Yeah you have to tell us!" Tenten said.

"Sakura-chan do you want me to wait for you or are you sitting with them today?" Shikamaru nodded at Tenten and Hinata as he stood up from his desk.

"Oh there's no way she's not sitting with us today, not after she had her first real guy experience." Tenten said her smirk growing.

"Ugh, shut up Ten-chan." I said blushing again and staring at the floor. "I'll catch up with you next period Shika-kun." I mumbled not being able to look him in the eyes.

"Alright." He shrugged seemingly unaffected by my choice in lunch tables today. Which disappointed me, I was hoping he would suddenly proclaim his need for me and beg for me to sit with him instead of getting lost in the chaotic highschool whirlpool that is known as the popular table.

I had a feeling I was about to be sucked in very deep.


	9. Chapter Eight

**A/N:---------------- PLEASE READ THIS REALLY QUICK!!!!-----------------------**

** I messed up on a previous chapter. ^.^'**

** I said **_**Four**_** guys in Sakura's art class were on The List. I really meant THREE!**

** Sorry, I was sort of getting ahead of myself there haha. I wonder if any of you noticed? No one said anything about it, but anyway I'm sorry for my mistake and pretend that it didn't happen kay?**

** Anyway, 3 more alerts, 3 more favs, and 5 reviews on the last chapter! (Thank you so much :] )**

** Lets shoot for 7 reviews this time! ( I don't want to miss my target by too much and then feel really lame about myself.)

* * *

**

I shifted my weight from foot to foot as I stood in the long line behind Tenten and Hinata for lunch. They jabbered on endlessly. While I spaced out lost in my head.

What the hell was I going to do? I mean, sitting with the popular kids? I didn't think I would be able to survive this one.

Tenten gave me a tug back to earth, literally, as her and Hinata grabbed a tray and started selecting items for their lunches. I followed suite, not really being that hungry. I slowly grabbed a bag of pretzels, a turkey sandwich, and a mini bottle of vitamin water. When I say slowly, that's exactly what I meant, very extremely, obnoxiously, deliberately slow.

Like when you tell someone. "Jeez, can you go any slower?" And they smile and move at a snail's pace just to mock you.

That's what I was doing.

The freshmen kid behind me got really annoyed and cut in front of me. Which gave me a great idea.

I stood still in front to the rack of snack foods as if debating carefully on which to buy. People just milled along around me, until they had pretty much formed a new steady path for the line to cut through.

I waited another long 20 seconds before rejoining the line and paying for my food.

Mission SUCCESSFUL!

Not.

Tenten and Hinata were waiting impatiently for me at the end of the line.

Damn, I thought that would do the trick.

Tenten tapped her foot and balanced her tray above her head with one had, like a skilled waitress, and gripped my elbow tightly, leading me to my doom.

I mean the popular table.

Hinata went around the table and sat down across from where I was standing. Tenten sat down in the seat in front of her and pulled me into the seat beside that one, and also beside Kiba.

My heart gave a little cheer. Not.

More like a rabid fangirl screech before it fell over not beating anymore, as Kiba gave me a friendly grin

Naruto sat next to Hinata and greeted each of us loudly as Sasuke chose the seat next to him. Neji sat across from Sasuke.

"Where is Temari-san going to sit Tenten?" I asked turning to her. I smiled inside my head as I thought about what a great reason this would be for me to have to leave and go sit with Shikamaru.

"She's sitting with her new boyfriend, Pein." Kiba shrugged in reply as a chip crunched in his mouth.

"Damn it." I muttered under my breath. But as I looked up I said it outloud. "Damn it."

There was Ino walking to our table her hips swaying as she gracefully skipped towards us. I had to say, when Tenten told me she would take care of it, I had kind of hoped she would literally "take care of it", because I couldn't think of anything else Tenten would be able to do that would make Ino not hate me.

Ino sat down and smiled, "Hey guys! Hey Sakura-chan!"

Something wasn't right here. Everyone nodded in reply, I managed a smile that I could tell seemed more like a grimace. I knew this was going to lead down the wrong path, I could tell by the evil gleam in Ino's eyes, and her overly sweet tone. I decide to keep track of my points standing up to Ino in front of everyone.

Because of the public scene and the company I was keeping at the current moment, I decided to start myself with +10 for insane bravery, because I had at least not cowered in the bathroom skipping lunch and had actually faced Ino's wrath up front.

"H-Hey Ino-chan." I managed to spit out "What's up?" Not bad, +2 for actually getting some seemingly normal words out of my mouth. -2 for stammering at the beginning.

"Oh nothing Forehead, just checking my email." She responded casually twisting the cap off her waterbottle. -1 for flinching slightly at the nickname. "How has your day been?"

"We all got new seating arrangements in Art today." I said casually pointing out that everyone at the table BUT her was in art 4th period. This had always been a sore spot with Ino, because it made her feel left out of the popular circle. Tenten had tried to explain it wasn't a big deal on countless occasions but nothing would console Ino when she was convinced that there was a popular circle within the popular circle. Said more exclusive circle excluded her. +4 for sticking it to her.

Ino's eyes clouded over a bit. "Who do you sit by?" She asked calmly.

"Naruto-kun...and Sasuke-kun." I said. +10 points for twisting the knife.

"Yeah! Isn't that funny Ino-chan, it's just like in grade school, right?" Naruto said happily breaking away from the conversation the guys were having about the homecoming football game.

Ino's eye twitched a little bit as I said Sasuke-kun, which instilled the fear in me again. -3 for looking away from her eyes and down at the pretzel I put in my mouth.

"How funny." She said composing herself. "I bet it makes it awkward for you since there are three other guys on the list in that class. -6 for making me sound like a slut.

"You mean two." I said. +1/2 for the pitiful attempt to make me less slutty. "You still can't count , Pig?" +3 for using her nickname in public.

By this time the guys had stopped talking. Kiba and Naruto were glancing between me and Ino wondering what exactly was going on. Sasuke and Neji just looked onward their faces impassive, they clearly understood the subtle cat fight that they were innocent bystanders of..

"No, I can count right." Ino said frustrated. But that quickly disappeared as she smiled one of those sickeningly sweet smiles at me. The ones reserved for a very bitchy comment to one of her enemies, like that whore Karin. "Sasuke-kun, Kiba-kun, Sai-kun..." She said tapping another finger and raising it as she said each name. "...And Shikamaru-kun."

I heard Tenten gasp and Hinata's mouth fell open a little bit but quickly closed because she was always raised to be extremely polite and therefore knew how rude and unattractive it would be for her to have her mouth hanging open at me right now.

"W-W-What?!" I said my voice rising. The bag of pretzels dropped onto my tray.

Naruto's eyes went all big, "Wow-ah! Shikamaru-kun is actually on the list?!"

"Doubt he'll be much of a date though, assuming he even wakes his lazy ass up and goes to the dance." Kiba laughed.

Normally, I would be pretty pissed off because:

a.) Shika-kun is my best friend and I don't want anyone calling him a lazy ass other than me or Choji.

b.) I knew Kiba wasn't that serious about it because Shikamaru and him are friends.

c.) I was too preoccupied with stupid dumb fat Ino.

d.) I was too preoccupied with the fact that I WAS SUPPOSED TO DATE MY BEST FRIEND! GAH!

"I added him to the list, we emailed a little bit and he said he was interested. I assumed you'd want me to say yes to him because he is your good friend and all. It'd be cute." Ino smiled again at me. This evil harpie had a smile of death.

_Oh Kami, Oh Lord, Oh God, Oh Jeez, Oh MY GRANDE SUPREME OVERSTUFFED TACO! What am I going to do!? Date Shikamaru? Go to the dance with Shikamaru? Possibly...P-P-ossibly KISS SHIKAMARU!?_

My head was reeling with imaginative thoughts, thoughts I usually had about Sasuke-kun, us slow dancing in a beautiful gazebo. Us riding in a horse drawn buggy, Us holding hands and me walking with a lavish parasol.

Okay granted a lot of my fantasies were really old timey but still!

Shikamaru?

I lost track of the points after that. Ino won. I knew it already.

"Ino! Baka! Look what you did now!" I heard Tenten shout from that spot next to me. God that spot seemed so far away from me right now, I felt like I was floating way above everyone, looking down at us all from above the table. Tenten was standing up and leaning over the table at Ino.

"What?! I didn't do anything to her!" Ino said defensively putting her hands on her hips as she stood up to match Tenten's height.

"Your going to give her a seizure again! Do you really want to kill your best friend?!" She shouted angrily. Tenten could be very intimidating when she was angry. I watched from above as Ino leaned back a little bit away from Tenten but trying not to show it.

I watched myself sitting there, jeez I wasn't looking to hot. Which was odd because I normally looked pretty hot. My face was getting pretty pale as if the color was slowly being sucked out of it the way a pen drys out of ink.

I noticed the whole table starting to stand up. Neji moved to pull Tenten back and Naruto did the same to Ino. Hinata was standing there looking scared as she glanced between the two girls. Suddenly I felt like I was back inside my body again, but I still felt that far away sense. Like everyone was underwater and there talking was just muffled gibberish.

I felt nauseous because everyone was now looming over me, so I tried to stand up with them. I pushed my tray forward and put both my palms flat on the new found space in front of me. I pushed myself up into a standing position but I think I moved too quickly.

Suddenly my view of Ino standing in front of me trying to yell back at Tenten and seem intimidating while Naruto held his arm out to hold her back was covered in black spots.

Then the whole picture was black, I felt my palms slide off the table as I fell.

* * *

"Sakura-chan are you okay?"

"Sakura-chan?"

"Sakura-channnn!"

"Wake up, Sakura-chan!"

_Ugh, Shut the hell up! Stupid voices! _Kami, they were getting annoying. What did they want!

"Wake up!"

Oh yeah, I guess they did say that before.

"Shuphgurmpbsh." I mumbled.

"She's aliveee!" I head a voice call out loudly, that was Naruto's voice. Annoying as always.

I felts something wet and cold be pressed against my forehead. _Ugh, your going to wipe off all my makeup!_

"What was that Sakura-chan?" I couldn't figure out whose voice that was. My head hurt.

"Shut...the..fuck-up...Bitch." I tired again, this time the words came out clearly enough everyone could understand. I opened my eyes to she there were multicolored shapes looming over me but they were all blurry and it took me a moment to figure out what they were as my eyes focused.

Hinata was sitting in a chair on my right pressing that wet cloth on my forehead, her expression was full of relief and she looked vaguely like she was trying to stifle a laugh.

Suddenly I realized the other shapes behind Hinata were standing. Neji was smirking as he stood next to Tenten who was holding her hand over her mouth.

I blinked.

Naruto and Ino were standing in front of my feet, both giggling like they were five. Kiba was sitting on my other side and turned away to hide his huge grin.

What the hell was so damn funny?!

I finally noticed the last shape sitting opposite of Hinata.

Sasuke-kun.

That...That had been Sasuke-kun's voice. I CALLED SASUKE A BITCH TWICE TODAY WITH IN A SINGLE HOUR!?

Sasuke raised his eyebrows at me.

"Did you just call me a bitch?...Again?"

"...Sorry?" I said trying to sit up.

"No just lay down for a minute Sakura-chan." Hinata said holding my arm down as she continued to press the cloth on my forehead.

"What happened?" I asked. "Where am I?"

"The infirmary, when Tenten and Ino were fighting you stood up and fainted. I caught you, so you didn't hit your head or anything." Kiba said smiling a big chivalrous grin.

"Thanks, I guess."

"No problem."

"I thought you died, Forehead! Don't ever do that to us again!" Ino said smiling at me.

Well I guess she was done being mad at me.

"Alright everyone! Clear out and get back to class!" A voice called from the doorway.

Everyone grumbled and got up saying good bye and feel better to me.

"We'll come see you after class." Tenten said squeezing my hand, then she let go and followed everyone out the door.

It was me alone in the "make-shift" room(, as the "walls" were really curtains pulled around my cot, so I couldn't see the rest of the infirmary). Well almost alone, it was really me and my nurse.

My male nurse.

With dorky Harry Potter glasses and a ponytail.

"Uhh. Hey Kabuto-san."

* * *

**A/N: Okay, In case anyone is counting (or waiting) i still have 3 guys to be added to the list.**

**I'm going to have them added next chapter, I promise! :)**

**Also I'm going to have Gaara, Lee, or Said date Sakura next chapter (possibly more than one).**

**So send in anymore suggestions! I love reading what characters you guys like most!**

**I keep all that in mind.**

**P.S. I was just looking around in other fanfiction categories to see whats really popular to write about.**

**(i think it might be harry potter which doubles naruto with like 400,000+ but idk)**

**and Mythology currently has 666 as of 9:00 p.m. central time.**

**:/ Wowz. lol  
**


	10. Chapter Nine

**A/N: T.T I haven't updated in a while have I? Sorry! But Finals week and break and holidays. Yikes.**

**Anyway No Dates. Sorry, I know I said so last time but Uhh. Yeah. I didn't get around to that, however I did get around to picking the rest of boys for The List.**

**Let's just say I was a little afraid of what someone would do if I didn't put that in this chapter.  
**

**Shields herself from Teenage Crisis with a garbage can lid. :D **

* * *

**  
**

5 days left.

Why was I doing this...Honestly? Why? Part of me just wished people would stop staring at me, stop smiling and flirting with me. I wanted it all to go back to normal!

Then again. There was that other part of me, the part that really loved the attention I got from some of the hottest guys in the school, mainly Sasuke. I'm a teenage girl, blame the hormones.

Then again, the first part of me kept wishing it would go away, I hadn't talked to Shikamaru yet, and now I had to have class with him! I wanted us to just be best friends again, so I didn't have to deal with the awkwardness.

I couldn't help picturing it all though, us dating I mean. It wouldn't be bad, and I couldn't say that I didn't want to date Shika. I just hadn't ever thought about it.

"Ugh..." I groaned as I rolled over in bed and hugged my pillow. "Hina-chan?" I called.

"Yes?" I head her sweet innocent little voice call from her bed behind me.

"How do you do it? Being popular, dating guys, it's so damn difficult!" I said sitting up and pulling my pillow onto my lap.

"Oh. I don't know Sakura-chan. I just ignore it. I mean, I don't mind being popular, but it puts a lot of pressure on people. Everyone's always expecting you to be perfect, I just ignore the people watching and focus on my friends." She said slowly, as she found the right words to explain them to me.

"That's good." I nodded. "Your really smart Hina-chan."

"Oh! Thank you Sakura-chan! But I'm really not. . .Neji's much smarter than me." She said her face a little pink as she sat up in her bed and shrugged her shoulders.

"That isn't true, don't base how good you are at something off of how good someone else is. Neji has nothing to do with you, he's his own person and your your own person."

Hinata smiled at me. "Thank you Sakura-chan."

"Don't worry about it." I smiled shrugging my shoulders.

After that we sat there for a few minutes in silence. It was an awkward silence where you try and find something, anything, to talk about. It was a comfortable thoughtful silence. That's why I loved Hinata, I didn't have to sit there and talk to her, we could just sit and think and somehow it made us closer, even though there was no actual exchange of words.

This calm moment of zen and tranquility was soon interrupted by Ino and Tenten bursting through our door and promptly jumping onto my bed and glomping me like the maniacs they are.

"Argh! Pig get off your crushing me!"

"Are you calling me fat?!"

"Yes you slut. NOW. MOVE!"

"You whore! NEVER!" Soon Ino was collapsed on me and Tenten climbed onto her at sat down.

"Shut up!" She said, earning herself a few growled profanities from Ino and me. To which she looked down at us and smiled sweetly.

"Now, get dressed you two sleepy heads! We are going on a skip day!!!" She said getting up off of us a moment before sitting with a hard thump.

"OWWW!" Ino screeched at Tenten. Tenten laughed and jumped up leaping on to Hinata's bed and hiding behind her giggling.

I managed to push Ino off me. "Where skipping school?"

"Yes."

"But that's against the rules." Hinata said.

"Your point?" Ino and Tenten said at the same time.

A sudden idea dawned on me and I shrugged. If it meant I could avoid Shikamaru. Hell, if it meant I could ditch all the guys for a day I'd go. "Alright, where are we going?"

Ino smiled at me. It was her way too common I-am-totally-innocent-not-I-really-have-an-evil-plan-but-you-have-no-way-of-getting-out-so-grin-and-bear-it look. "The mall!"

"Ackk!" I said jumping away from her and landing on the floor, I rolled under my bed ninja style.

"Sakura! Your going!"

"No!"

"Sakura, Ino's right you are."

"No!"

"Ugh, please come out?"

"NO!"

"Why not?"

"YOU KNOW WHY! OR DID THE BLEACH SEEP INTO YOUR BRAIN?!"

"HEY! MY HAIR IS NATURAL!!!"

"Sakura-chan, we can't leave you under your bed, please just come out."

"...No."

"Sakura-chan, Tenten is going to go under there and get you if you don't come out."

"I'm not coming out."

Ino sighed. "Tenten..."

I shrieked as a pair of hands latched onto my arm determined to drag me from under the safe haven known as "under my bed" and to the gates of hell.

Or as Ino lovingly calls it, the mall.

* * *

"Why do you hate me so much? Aren't we friends?" I whined.

Hinata shook her head at me and Tenten rolled her eyes.

"The mall is a girl's best friend! You shall look beautiful when I get through with you dear." Ino said over her shoulder as she took the lead.

* * *

It wasn't all that bad actually. I got a few really cute things and trying on clothes is actually kind of fun.

Just kidding.

After we had managed to sneak through the courtyard and squeeze through the gates in the back we snuck into the parking garage.

Most students didn't have cars on campus. Ino did, because a) Ino's family is rich b) Ino's parents own a very large plastic surgery and spa corporation, and c) Ino can charm the boys manning the garage to get her car out and turn a blind eye as four students leave campus.

Of course there was a bit of smiling and eyelash batting and possibly a few dollars to encourage them, but Ino gets what she wants when she wants it and no one, especially any guy, can say no to her.

At the mall however:

I went through torture. I had been dragged from store to store as Ino gathered unhealthy amounts of clothes to shove onto me in the cramped changing rooms. Then there was the makeup counters. Instead of letting the women try makeup out on me, she insisted and heckled them until they let her do the makeup testing.

I admit, I did look....Well okay I LOOKED HOT!

She did a smokey eyed look, complete with the killer eyeliner, eyeshadow, and mascara that made my eyelashes look super longer. She rubbed some other junk on my face that made my skin look fantastic and gave me a shiny pink lip-gloss that made my lips look naturally lusciously kissable.

I normally hated all the extra primping and polishing it took to look as pretty as Ino, Tenten, and Hinata, but I had to admit how much I really wished I could look like this everyday.

Ino was a beautiful, popular goddess for a reason. This was one of them.

* * *

We continued walking through the mall, Ino searching for any store relevant to her needs that we had missed, I don't think that could have been possible. Actually I don't think any of this stuff really had a relevant need. Ino had bought most of this stuff for me, with her daddy's platinum card, and I didn't really need it....

Hey...Wait a sec...

"Girls?" I asked suddenly suspicious as we stopped at a large map of the mall.

"Hm?" Ino said scanning the list of stores.

"Why did we come here today?"

"Oh...You know, shopping."

"For what? I don't need all this crap." At this Tenten snorted and rolled her eyes at me. "What?"

"Uh, let's just say, we picked out the rest of the guys on the list, trust me you'll need this stuff."

"Tenten!" Ino said glaring at her.

"What?! Who else is on the list? You better tell me right now." I added angrily. As I said that Ino and Tenten started a staring match, each raising there eyebrows and gesturing the whole you-tell-her-no-you ordeal.

"One's a junior and well...The rest are seniors." Hinata said.

I gulped. Seniors. Could I handle that? I could barely deal with the guys these girls were dishing at me from our grade! "Who?" I said my voice a bit shaky.

"Well...There's Suigetsu Hozuki."

"WHAT?! THAT DRUGGIE MAN WHORE?!" I shouted, causing me to get many angry looks from adults walking by. Yeah shut up, I know I'm supposed to be in school! Honestly!

"Well! Hey! That was Ino's fault!" Hinata said holding her hands up to defend herself.

"Pig!"

"Shut up! You can say no to him, it's just he promised to invite us to some really cool parties, and besides it makes choosing that much easier." Ino shrugged and turned back to survey any left over shops.

"Agreed." Tenten said.

"Then there's Deidara and-"

"No way! I'll look like an idiot, because he's the one I found out about this whole list from in the first place!"

"Another easy check off then." Tenten shrugged.

"If I check off everyone I won't have a date!" I snapped.

Actually, that wasn't necessarily a total con.

"Trust me you won't check off everyone." Tenten snorted again. I would never check of Sasuke-kun! Or Shikamaru...Ugh, thank god I got to skip school today. I wouldn't have to deal with seeing him! Not that I didn't want to see my best guy friend. It's just. Wait did I just say I wouldn't check him off? Why did I say that?

"Sasori-san is also on the list."

"WHAT?!" I shouted. SASORI?! He was...Oh geez. He was a that smoking hot red headed senior who was really into theater. He was good too. Good enough to be the male lead along side Tenten.

"W-Who's the last one?" I asked warily.

"Itachi-san." Hinata said as she quickly stepped back from me and covered her ears expecting a scream that would top anything I'd shouted today.

Instead my jaw dropped to the floor. I gulped, actually it wasn't even a gulp, it was more like an entire half a minute of me struggling to swallow the large lump in my throat.

"Uchiha Itachi?" I whispered.

Ino turned from the map of her kingdom to look at me and snickered. "Yes, Uchiha Itachi. Now how will you choose between sexy Sasuke-kun and smexi Itachi-kun, Sakura-chan?" She asked with a smirk.

I didn't have anything to say to that. My brain could hardly wrap its way around my current situation, let alone this statement. Naturally I blurted out what I always do when I have no comeback.

"Your mom!"

"HA!" Tenten started to laugh leaning against Hinata for support who was also giggling.

Ino just rolled her eyes. "Yeah, exactly."

Then we heard a noise.

It was a growly gurgling noise, that only meant one thing: Tenten was hungry.

She stopped laughing abruptly and looked at her stomach. "Food, now." She said and turned towards the food court walking with the determination and purpose of a woman on a mission.

We all were obliged to follow, because even when this was Ino's territory, Tenten's hunger trumped all.

* * *

We all trudged along to the food court and glanced at all the restaurants.

"What do you want Tenny?" I asked, because although we're all hungry, Tenten's needs come first.

"MickyFuckingDee's dawg." She said eyeing the large yellow fluorescent arches across the food court.

"Seriously?" Ino cringed, just thinking about the fattening fries that would(n't) ruin her perfect figure (because honestly her fast metabolism killed everything that went into her)..

"I want McFlurry. NAOOWW!!!" Tenten said

"Uh oh." Hinata said quietly and we steered Tenten towards the McDonalds.

* * *

"Eww, Tenten, can you at least not inhale that crap? Eat normally!" Ino whined and she stared at Tenten sitting across from her. The bun haired girl was currently alternating between shoving fries into her mouth and shoveling an Oreo McFlurry into her mouth.

"Slut, shut up." Tenten said as she casually dipped a fry into her McFlurry and stared Ino full in the face as she bit the tip of the fry off.

"Ugh. Your going to ruin my appetite." Ino said cringing and looking at her chicken salad.

"I'll stop eating McDonalds if you stop being a slut." Tenten said.

"I'm not a slut." Ino sniffed. "I'm comfortable with my sexuality."

"Ha. That's the sweet way to put it." I said.

"Sorry cupcake, it's the same thing." Hinata smiled as she took a long sip of her strawberry banana smoothie.

I smiled before I took a bite of my salad. Then I looked past Hinata, at the crowd of people walking around behind her. I dropped my fork.

Why was Naruto, Neji, Kiba, and Sasuke-kun looking at the sign listing all the restaurants? Why are they hear?

I suppose something about my expression told Hinata to look behind her, because she turned around and tried to find out what I was looking at.

"Oh crap." Tenten glanced up and followed my gaze.

"Oh shizz." She said.

"Huh? Shit." Ino said joining in.

I watched as Naruto seemed to suddenly be upset about something, he looked near tears. The other boys just rolled their eyes.

"Ha." Tenten said smirking.

"What?" Hinata asked.

"No ramen."

"Oh." The three of us said together.

"Should we book it?" I asked casually watching as the boys walked over to Papa John's even though Naruto still looked upset.

"Why?" Ino asked.

"Like you don't know." I said staring at her like she was a moron.

"Don't look at me like that!" Ino said angrily.

"I'll look at you how I want!"

"Not if I say so you won't!"

"Pig!"

"Forehead!"

"Ino, I think your roots are showing!"

"IT'S NATURAL DAMMIT!" Ino shrieked throwing a piece of chicken at me, which conveniently landed in between the small section of the white cami I was wearing, and the red scoop neck shirt that was over it.

Tenten burst into her maniac giggling, as Hinata just shook her head.

"Ino, Tenten, Sakura, Hinata-chan! What are you guys doing here?" A booming hyperactive boyish voice called from behind Ino and Hinata.

Aw Fuck.

The boys were all standing there, Kiba holding a large pizza box.

"BAHAHAHA!" Tenten said looking from me to them and clutched her stomach. She fell off her stool laughing so hard. Earning us more dirty looks from the adults at nearby tables. WE KNOW WE SHOULD BE AT SCHOOL OKAY! IT'S CALLED DITCHING! WEREN'T YOU EVER A TEENAGER?!

Oh great, my life was lovely, here I was in the middle of the food court skipping school to keep away from the boys on The List, when two of them show up right in front of me. Did I mention I'm also going to be going on a date with one of their brothers? Not to mention one of my best friend is cruelly making a scene by laughing at my situation.

Oh and I have a piece of chicken caught in my shirt.

Sasuke glanced down at said chicken, and raised his eyebrow.

Yeah, My life is a fail.


	11. Chapter Ten

**A/N: Thanks for reviewing! :) **

**Sorry I went a bit caps lock crazy at the end.**

**R/R?**

**I should really start all my homework. ^.^'  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own? Understand? Okay Good.  
**

* * *

Okay, I was faced with a few problems in this moment.

_How do I escape these boys?_

This is a major problem because Kiba and Sasuke are both on The List, but Naruto wouldn't be that easy to slither away from with his big, dumb, loud mouth. Also Ino and Tenten wouldn't show any mercy on my soul (or body) if I did manage to get away from them.

Assuming I won't be able to get away:

_How do I act around Kiba and Sasuke?_

Do I drill them with questions to see if they're boyfriend material? (Probably not that'd scare them away.) Do I flirt like a mad woman and try to steal their hearts? (Yeah right, I'm not Ino, I don't know what I'm doing in that department.) Do I play hard to get? (Would it even be that hard for Sasuke to get me? That was a rhetorical question.) Should I just act normal? (Ha! Well normal me doesn't work well in these situations. My current predicament (or series of) is more of "Ino's normal" than mine.)

_How do I discreetly remove the piece of chicken from my cleavage area?_

Some how, I'm more worried about this issue than the first two...

* * *

I glanced behind Sasuke and widened my eyes. "Oh my god! Is that Kakashi-sensei?!" I exclaimed. Tenten pulled herself up back into her chair and joined in with everyone in turning around to check for our very perverted sensei who could very easily get us in major trouble with Tsunadae-sama if we were caught off school grounds, not to mention when we were supposed to be in class.

I took this glorious opportunity to pull the piece of chicken from my shirt and whip it angrily at the side of Ino's head, where it bounced off and landed on the floor.

"Hey!" She shouted her hand flying up to the site of impact, checking to make sure I hadn't caused any golden locks to fall from her perfect ponytail.

I glared at her in response, Tenten just snickered as she kicked the piece of chicken with the toe of her black combat boot.

"He's not here." Neji said turning back around and staring at me.

"Err...It must have been someone else than." I shrugged and twirled my fork around in my salad. I speared a cherry tomato and bit it off threateningly at Ino.

"Good! The last thing we want is to get caught!" Naruto said sitting down next to Hinata. "You guys cut school today too?"

Hinata gave a small sigh, which I knew was her subtly reminding us that she didn't like breaking school rules. Sorry Hina-chan, I would have said no too, had I not been trying to escape the people that had found us anyway.

"The mall beckoned for us." Ino said smiling brilliantly as Kiba sat down next to me setting the pizza box between Naruto and him.

"What about you guys? Did the mall beckon you too?" Tenten smiled. "Did you need some more shampoo for that lusciously long hair of yours, Neji?"

"Shut up, at least I don't look like a panda."

"Panda's are adorable! At least I'm not a girly man!"

"..."

Tenten stuck out her tongue.

"Your immature."

"You can't spell I'm mature without immature."

"Hn." He replied sitting down next to Kiba at the same time Sasuke sat next to Naruto.

I raised my eyebrows at Hinata, but she just shook her head slightly and staring at Tenten out of the corner of her eye.

"So, what are you girls doing later?" Kiba said as he helped himself to a particularly large slice of the pepperoni half of the pizza.

"Just getting Sakura ready for tonight." Ino shrugged looking past me at Kiba.

Hinata looked down and slurped at her smoothie. I glanced at Tenten who "casually" started to whistle (have you ever heard someone whistle and not been suspicious).

"Wait what?"

"Nothing." Ino said staring at me blankly.

"What do you mean nothing?"

"Huh?"

"You just said you had to get me ready for tonight? What's tonight?"

"Who are we talking about now?"

"You! Or me?! Or all of us?! I don't know!"

"When?"

"Tonight!"

"Oh that."

"What the hell?!"

"Uhm, you have a couple dates tonight." She shrugged again and took a dainty bite of her salad. I hated that, her little princess mannerisms; like dainty eating. It was a struggle trying to not get food all over my face when I ate. Maybe it's easy for her because she has such a big mouth? Yeah, I like that her big, fat (, whoreish) mouth makes it easier for her to eat. What a pig.

"With who!?" I shrieked. Then I realized I just made a mistake. I had done that thing where I'm not used to having guys around (like the most popular guys in school) and the conversation I'm about to have in front of them is not one I want them to hear exactly.

"Wellll." Ino drawled on slowly. "Sai, Lee, Gaara, and Suigetsu."

I twitched slightly.

"Rock Lee?"

"Mhmm." I bit my tongue. I mean I literally was biting down as hard as I could on my tongue so I wouldn't sling a colorful array of derogatory words at Ino. I pushed my food to the center of the table, in the hopes that the farther away from me they were the less tempted I would be to drape them neatly over Ino's pretty little princess head.

"Ha! Bushy Brows?! Your actually going to date him?" Naruto let out a laugh and Kiba joined him.

I banged my head of the table.

"Aw, come on Sakura-chan! He's kind of sweet." Ino said.

_Bang_.

"He's kind of ridiculous! Have you even looked at the guy?" Kiba said before laughing again.

_Bang._

"Sakura-chan it won't be that bad!" Tenten said in what I assumed was a reassuring tone. However said tone was not doing it's job.

_Bang._

"Ino, stop breaking Sakura-chan." Hinata said.

_Bang._

"I agree, she's going to be broccoli after this week." Tenten said shaking her head.

_Bang._

"Broccoli?" Naruto said confused.

"Yeah you know how they say people turn to 'vegetables' when they go brain dead."

"Why broccoli?"

"I hate broccoli." Tenten said simply.

_Bang._ I let my head rest face down on the table. "So your going to hate me? Thanks Tenten."

"I didn't mean it like that."

"How did you mean it then?" I said lifting my head to stare at her.

"If you were broccoli, I wouldn't eat you!"

I blinked at her. Tenten was more of a tomboy than any of us. She was down for any sport, the more extreme the better. Maybe it was bouncing one to many soccer balls off her head or wiping out on her bike too often? I think she might have been the type of kid to chew on the bars of her crib when she was a baby. Lead paint perhaps?

* * *

I winced as Ino clamped the her straightener closed with a snap on my hair, dangerously close to my right ear. She hummed a random tune pretending not to notice my flinching.

"Remind me why I have to do this again?" I asked staring up at her from my chair. I was currently being locked in Tenten and Ino's large bathroom. Makeup, hair products and other bottles that I didn't know the contents of littered half of the counter. The other half was littered with Tenten's large ass as she perched there smiling and swinging her legs. She inspected her nails.

"So you can look amazing and have all these guys fall in love with you!"

"What if I don't want that though?" I said realizing that I was a liar. I did like this. Well not the being dragged around by Ino and Tenten and then turned into a life sized doll for them to parade around. I liked guys noticing me, as much as I hated to admit it. Come on, I'm a girl, any girl knows no matter who the guy is, that they feel a bit flattered that they're checking them out. I was possibly elated with the prospect of Sasuke-kun checking me out...and maybe even his sexy older brother?

"Liar! Liar! Pants on fire!" Tenten sang.

"Sometimes, I can't imagine why we're friends."

"It's because we are amazing, and have known each other since we were in diapers. Admit it, everyone of us is crazy even you Sakura-chan. We're just the only one who can handle each other's craziness." Hinata smiled as she picked through a makeup bag devoted entirely to lip-gloss. Really who needed over 100 lip-glosses!

I just rolled my eyes and sighed some more, because hell, that's all I could do. I know there was no chance of opting out of this little game, I would have to just suffer.

* * *

Remind me why I'm standing at the front doors of the Konoha Art Museum? Oh right, I'm going on a date with hunky Sai who is a phenomenal artist.

I stood in front of the large glass doors peering in and seeing the big lobby area. Was he here already? I hoped not. I stared at my reflection in the glass. Ino had touched up on my makeup, and added a bit of silvery glitter to my eyelids. They matched the shiny silver shirt that clung to my body and ended in the middle of my butt, which was covered in a pair of new black skinnies. A pair of cute shiny black flats that I stole from Hina-chan were snug on my feet and I wore my KRMA Jade Leather Jacket which is the exact same kind as the one Elena always wears in Vampire Diaries. Gosh do I love that show, what if Sasuke and Itachi turned out to be vampires?! They could fight over me! That'd be so hot...I should stop drooling, I think people are staring at me funny.

I pulled the door open and walked into the large lobby. In front of me was a long line leading towards the front desks. I glanced around there was a museum gift shop to my right. Maybe I should browse as I wait? I made my way over and decided to see if they had any art books. I seriously should have studied a bit more, I won't be able to keep up with anything Sai says.

I made my way to shelf in the back and picked up a colorful, but extremely thick book. "The Artistic World Through Time" it read across the spine. I pulled it off the shelf immediately grabbing with two hands because gosh it was heavier than any of my text books. I opened it up to a middle page, the first thing I saw? A statue of a naked man. I closed the book and quickly tried to fit it back between it's likenesses where I had found it.

"Sakura-chan?"

I let out a loud squeak and jumped, the book teetered back towards me and fell to the floor bringing along three other equally heavy copies with it.

I squeezed my eyes tightly shut. Kami, please don't let this be Sai-kun!

I turned around and opened one eye. "H-Hi Sai-kun."

He looked down at the books on the floor. I quickly dropped down and started to gather them into my arms.

"I was just uh looking around. I didn't know you were here yet. Heh..." I stood up and struggled to set them back in their places without dropping them.

Sai took them from my arms and carefully put them back up shaking his head.

"Sorry for scaring you." He said tilting his head to the side and his eyes on my face.

"Oh, I wasn't really that scared. It was just...uh they were kind of heavy...and..." I fumbled along with my words as I brought my hand up and combed my fingers through the back of my hair nervously. It was a major habit of mine and Ino had screeched at me like the harpie she was to leave my hair alone or I would mess it up.

"Right, maybe we should get going?" He said pointing his thumb over his shoulder at the rest of the museum.

"Yeah." I said nodding rapidly. Realizing I was exhibiting another nervous habit I stopped abruptly, this was going to be a long date.

* * *

We stood in front of a large display window encased in class. I peered through at the painted wooden block.

"1756-1806?" I read of the small golden black at the base of the casing. "This thing is dated." I took another look at the Japanese woman in the piece of artwork. She was sitting in her kimono holding two hand-mirrors, one in front of her and one behind her, trying to examine the back of her hair.

I laughed, "I guess woman don't change much through out history do they? Ino still does that all the time!" I said poking the glass with my index finger.

"Hm." Sai said. "Sakura please try not to touch anything." He repeated for probably the fifth time. He wasn't a good date. He hardly said much, and didn't even compliment me on how cute I looked. He did get points for being "the handsome starving artist" though, even though I was positive he wasn't exactly "starving", his parents actually owned a large cosmetics company. He just seemed quite and emo in the way a starving artist would be. He also was fascinating when he talked about some of the ancient art work we had looked at. To me it was beautiful sure, but it was just art. To him, it was like he breathed it in. He had done a wistful explanation about a lovely carved jade dragon pendant (that I swear I had seen before somewhere), it had dated back to about the 3rd or 4th century B.C.

It amazed me how people even that long ago had been able to create something so wonderful, and the fact that it had lasted this long. In that moment I felt like I saw a true view of how much Sai really loved art. I commented on how maybe years from now people would be strolling through this museum and see some of his artwork here. He had immediately gone back to his passive, emotionless self, blocking any further positive communication.

Suddenly I remembered where I had seen that dragon before, Sai had done a painting of it, only there were multiple dragons, and they had been done in only black and white. It had been remarkable and Gai-sensei had it hanging in the hallway all year long.

"Sai you really love art don't you?" I said quietly. I looked at him out of the corner of my eye.

He looked down at the floor for a moment. "More than food."

Total starving artist. "Are you going to pursue it in college?" I asked.

His face clouded over and he turned away from me. "It's none of your business."

I stood there in shock. I hadn't expected that. I had expected to see that happy wistfulness peek out at me again, I had expected him to open up more and to see the real Sai. Instead he shut me out.

"Whatever, you don't have to be so cold just because your insecure. I think your art is really good.." I said reaching out to him.

He turned around and faced me, but his expression was completely blank. I didn't see any emotion in his eyes. "Sakura, you don't know anything about art. Your too busy worried about superficial things like getting a date to Homecoming to pay attention in class. You have no idea what truly good art is and frankly you don't know me, so quit pretending you understand me. I'm not insecure."

Are you kidding me? Superficial? This wasn't even my idea in the first place!

"Well you don't know me either! Quit judging, you don't know that I'm superficial, I don't care about this stupid dating thing, it was Ino and Tenten who dragged me into it! If it's so stupid why are you here with me anyway? I can't even try to understand you if you act like a lifeless block of ice!" I huffed.

He turned towards the picture of the Japanese lady and her mirrors again. I crossed my arms waiting for a reply. He just stood there in silence.

"Fine! Be a jerk! You'd be a terrible date to Homecoming! Like I'd ever go with you!" I said disgusted and turned around angrily marching back out of the gallery.

* * *

I pushed the glass doors open and stomped down the stairs out onto the street. Forget him! How dare he even say that!

"SAKURA-CHAN!" I heard someone shout my name from behind. Ugh who the hell?

I turned around to see Lee skipping towards me with the giant smile plastered onto his face. His shiny black bowl cut and large bushy eyebrows just as I remembered.

He twirled over to me handing me an actual cherry blossom. "A cherry blossom for my beautiful youthful cherry blossom!" He said still smiling.

He wore a bright green polo and bright green skinny jeans. I did a mental "What the fuck?" as I just stared at him.

"I was waiting for you! What would you like to do for our date!?"

"Erm..." I struggled to think of something that wouldn't end in him making a big scene. "Let's go eat okay? I'm kind of hungry."

"OF COURSE! Even the most youthful beautiful cherry blossom needs nourishment!" He said hooking his arm in mine and marching down the sidewalk to the nearest restaurant, forcing me to be dragged along beside him.

* * *

Here I was. Where I never thought I would ever be: On a date with Rock Lee. Where are we you ask?

Ichiraku Ramen, it was actually weird being here without Naruto. He practically lived here.

"Sakura-chan! How was your date with Sai-kun? He is a very good artist, but I think I would make a better boyfriend." He said matter-o-factly as he slurped up his noodles.

"It wasn't that great, he called me superficial and hardly talked at all." I grumbled taking a bite.

"What!? I wish I was there Sakura! I would have defended you! You are most definitely not superficial at all! You are the most wonderful, caring person I know!" He exclaimed jumping up from his seat.

"Thanks Lee. Can you please sit down? People are staring..."

"Of course! I would do anything for you Sakura-chan!" He shouted. Then he turned around and faced the street of bustling people. "I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR MY BEAUTIFUL SAKURA-CHAN!"

I twitched.

"Aw, isn't that sweet dear." A middle aged lady said smiling at the Lee and I as she patted her husband's arm and walked by. I felt my twitching grow more violent.

"LEE! I'm not yours! SIT DOWN!" I said pulling him back to his stool before he caused a bigger scene.

"Oh I'm so sorry Sakura-chan! I did not mean that you were mine! You are a free and beautiful blossom of glowing youth! You could never be kept by anyone! You should be free to shine like a ray of sunshine upon all who look at you!"

"Exactly Lee! See, since you think that, maybe it would be best that I didn't go with you to the dance? I was thinking I'd just go by myself or something." I said smiling at my brilliant idea to use Lee's great opening.

He grew quite for a moment. "Your right Sakura-chan! How could I even think of holding you back! You should go to the dance alone and dance with everyone! I shall do the same! In the name of youthfulness!" He yelled jumping up again.

"Lee! Sit. Down."

"Of course my cherry blossom!" He said jumping back onto his seat.

"Uhm, I think it's about time for me to go..." I said pulling some money from my pocket.

Lee gasped. "No! Sakura-chan I will pay for your food!" He said taken aback. "It is the gentlemanly thing to do!"

"Uh, Lee it's fine really I have it." I said shaking my hand and pushing my money onto the counter. Just as I did this Lee jumped onto his stool and started shouting.

"NO IN ALL CHIVALRY AND YOUTHFULNESS I WILL PAY FOR MY DARLING CHERRY BLOSSOM'S LUNCH! IT IS THE LEAST I CAN DO IN THE NAME OF LOVE!"

"Aww, what a sweet boy." A woman said nodding as she walked by.

"LEE SHUT UP! I CAN PAY FOR MY OWN DAMN FOOD!"

"BUT SAKURA-CHAN! WE ARE ON A DATE AND THE MAN SHOULD PAY!"

"DON'T SHOUT THINGS LIKE THAT SO EVERYONE CAN HEAR YOU!"

"I'm so sorry Sakura-chan! I have upset you! I'M DEEPLY SORRY FOR UPSETING SAKURA-CHAN!" He screamed turning towards the street and shouting to the people walking by and staring at us. "I WOULD NEVER WISH TO HURT SUCH A BEAUTIFUL CHERRY BLOSSOM! I APOLOGIZE A MILLION TIMES! AND IF SHE DOES NOT FORGIVE ME I SHALL CARRY HER EVERYWHERE, SO SHE NEVER SUFFERS THE BURDEN OF TIRED FEET FROM WALKING!"

Suddenly I heard a barking laugh and loud hooting and whipped around. Kiba and Naruto were doubled over laughing.

Fuck. My. Life. Much?


	12. Chapter Eleven

**A/N: Yikes, this is super short. But I had a mental block and I thought it'd be better to cut off at where I did then**

**continue on. Plus I'm late on posting. I swear I'll make the next chapter twice as long as usual though. :)

* * *

  
**

I wasn't quite sure what to do at that moment. Do I pull Lee of his stool and beat him unconscious so he shuts up? Should I just run away?

This was embarrassing. This was exactly why I wasn't like Ino or Tenten or Hinata. This was why I wasn't popular; because I can't handle it. The three of them would never have gotten into this situation, they would have been able to manipulate and maneuver right around it. Me? I was just swerving straight into traffic. I was sliding downhill fast, and I'm pretty sure someone cut my brakes.

"Lee get down now!"

"No Sakura-chan! My love I have to apologize! I have to let everyone know!"

"Lee if you don't get down from there, I'M LEAVING!"

His eyes grew wide and he jumped down wrapping his arms around me. "No please Sakura-chan! Don't let me ruin your day! Stay and eat ramen!" He sang out letting me go and scooping his bowl up and pushing it towards me. "Sakura-chan you can have mine too!"

"I'll pass." I said refraining from smacking the bowl onto the ground and punching him in the face. I turned away from Lee and started walking straight through Naruto and Kiba, pushing them aside as I stalked down the sidewalk. I had to try and leave with some pride left.

"Sakura-chan! Sakura wait!" I started to slow down. "Sorry, Sakura. We-ha-we didn't mean-haha-to laugh at you or anything. It was Lee we were laughing at, the kid is as wacked out as Gai-sensei, he's practically a clone!"

It was Kiba, walking next to me smiling his goofy dog-like grin his brown shaggy bangs falling over his forehead.

"Ugh. Just forget it..." I said sullenly not looking at him, because how could I face him when I could still faintly hear Lee shouting back at Ichiraku's?

"So I take it you aren't going with him then?" He said smiling at me.

"Nooo!" I groaned.

"Hmm." He said looking at me as I tried my hardest to remain facing forward. "Can...Can I ask you something?"

"...Sure." I shrugged. It couldn't possibly be worse than the embarrassment I had just felt with Lee, not even five minutes ago?

"Well, uh, is Ino-chan dating anyone?" He said rather shyly looking down at his feet as we continued to walk.

Oh, right it could be worse.

"What? Wait, Ino?"

He looked up at me, "I'm sorry! I shouldn't have said that! It's got nothing to do with you Sakura-chan! I-I was just talking to Ino, because I....I like her and then, well she was going on about you, and The List...She just kinda asked me and I said sure, because I....I don't know. But Naruto and I thought it'd be a good idea anyway, to get you to start sitting with us, because your pretty cool Sakura-chan. We really miss hanging out with you like we did when we were kids and stuff. I just....I like Ino a lot, actually."

I stopped walking and he continued a few steps before he realized and turned back and stood in front of me. Seriously? I had just had one of the most embarrassing days of my life. First, Sai acts like a horrible date and insults me and makes me feel like an idiot for trying to connect with him. Then, Lee embarrasses me in front of random strangers on the street, Naruto, and Kiba. The cherry on top? I find out Kiba isn't even interested in me, he's trying to get closer to Ino...and he played the "friend card" to ease my pain.

Is that how she managed to get every guy on The List? Because they would all do anything for her or owed her a favor? And not just her, lots of them probably liked Tenten or Hinata too. I'm sure they weren't satisfied with the duds they got like Lee and Kabuto. They...they rigged this whole thing.

"Whatever, I don't care." I huffed. I could feel how hot my face was getting from sheer embarrassment and complete anger. "She isn't dating anyone." I said, stepping around him walking away.

* * *

I stomped through the courtyard as I wondered where the hell they could be hiding (and probably laughing at my stupidity) at.

How could I even _think_ Sasuke liked me. How could I even _imagine_ Itachi, Deidara, and Sasori knew of my existence.

I made my way through the lobby and turned into the hallway making my way to the girls' dorm.

"Sakura."

I wanted to scream. I wanted to rip the drinking fountain off the wall and hurl it behind me because, maybe just maybe, then people would learn to leave me alone.

That's really what I liked most. Being alone, not being the center of attention, planning my own life and not having people stop to talk to me about anything (complete with lies and fake smiles). I liked not having to keep up a stupid appearance. Like all the stupid people in this school do. Like my stupid friends and stupid guys.

I was at a breaking point at that moment, which is probably why I turned around and shouted "WHAT?!" very angrily, making the boy behind me stop in his tracks.

Sasuke raised a dark eyebrow. Mmm, he looked sexy in his uniform, with his blazer missing, tie loose, and the sleeves of his white dress shirt rolled up carefully to his elbows. In any other moment of my life I probably would have drooled all over the linoleum floor. There is however, always the exception to every rule.

"What'd I do now?" He said stuffing his hands into his pockets and walking towards me.

Ugh, please.

"I know the little game my so called "friends" have going." I said, my voice like an icicle as I actually held up both hands to make quotation marks in the air with my fingers.

"The List? I think everyone know about that Sakura-chan."

"Which one of them recruited you? Huh? Which one do you like? Tenten, she's pretty athletic, I'm sure you like a girl that's fit. Maybe Hinata? She's quite, you always hate when girls talk so much. When anyone talks so much. You probably have a crush on her. Or are you like Kiba? Is it Ino then, she is practically the queen of it all." I spat crossing my arms across my chest.

I took a step towards him, trying to jab my icicle like words straight into him. I can't believe I was so dumb as to think my friend since grade school, the guy I have been in love with for forever could possibly feel any hint of desire for me.

"I can't believe I was stupid enough to believe them too. Tenten is a good actor, but I didn't realize I was so gullible. Your all just a bunch of fake bastards, up on your high horses parading around the school like you own everything. AND EVERYONE LET'S YOU DO IT! The whole god damned student body puts you on a pedestal and practically worships you. I remember why I never hang out with any of you anymore! I hate all of it!" I shouted.

His oh-so-delicious-black eyes narrowed at me and all playfulness was absent in his expression. "You should really stop insulting people. We aren't fake, and you know it. People act like idiots around us but that isn't our fault. _Some_ people use it to their advantage. _Some._ I don't know what your talking about with Tenten, Hinata, and Ino but I don't like any of them like that. You have no idea how I act so shut up."

"I have no idea how you act? Sasuke, I've known you since we were little. Your always all quite and brooding. You act all superior and push Naruto around. You insult people all the time, calling everyone annoying and stupid! I've always been nice, I'm not going to do what you say just because it's you. I don't care anymore."

"You should really, really shut up."

"Why? Are you going to make me Sas-uke-_kun_? Go ahead. Whatever you do I don't give a fuck." I said putting my hands on my hips and staring defiantly at him. Pshh, he had the nerve to lie to me! To tell ME to shut up! Oh hell no.

Sasuke stepped towards me and smirked. He wasn't taking me seriously. I was a joke to him, I was still just a joke to him.

My hand flew up and a loud smack rang through the empty hall as it connected to the side of his face. It was hard enough to make his head snap to the side and my palm sting as I drew it back.

I really hadn't planned that. All that anger at everyone and my frustration had built up. I really hate liars. I really hate being used. I hate being toyed with, and Sasuke really shouldn't try to mess with me.

Sasuke's expression changed to shock. I knew she should be afraid, I _knew_ I should run or apologize or something. Sasuke had never been nice when fan girls had jumped him in hoards or when anyone picked a fight with him. But I was rooted to the spot.

"Well?" I said taking another small step to invade his space and push a reaction out of him. "I'm not going to shut up."

He stared at her. "What do you want from me?"

I thought about the question for a moment. "I want you to stop lying and tell me why your on The List."

He stared into my eyes and then blinked, shaking his head. "You want to know why?" He asked. Then his arm snaked around my waist and pulled me into him, and his lips pressed hard against mine.

Sasuke Uchiha was kissing me.


	13. Chapter Twelve

**A/N: Omfg my internet was down for more than a week. Argghhh. sadness.**

**Anywayyyyy...people that are upset with the SasuSaku thing should chill outttt.**

**Because I know how I'm ending the story.**

**And I'm not saying it will or will not be SasuSaku.**

**You'll just have ta wait and see. ;)**

**On a brighter note. I love you.  
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Uchiha Sasuke has his arms around me!

Uchiha Sasuke is kissing me!

All I could do is scream in my head, until it fully registered that Sasuke's lips were pressed against mine and working together to create this magically tingly feeling of happiness floating all around me.

He really is a good kisser. Not that I have anyone to really compare it to, but I would only imagine he is. Maybe this is just all my imagination and I'm a deluded teenage fangirl? I pulled one hand free of where they were clasped at the back of Sasuke's neck and pinched my other forearm with it.

"Mph." I winced, my pain muffled by Sasuke's mouth.

Apparently I am not dreaming. This is good to know.

Sasuke broke the kiss and stared at me his expression what I assume was concern.

"The kid's voice is so high he sounds like a girl. There is no way he's really male."

"Dude, girls love him! I don't get it either. Why do they like girly men? I'm all male and you don't see women falling over each other to get my autograph. Stupid Justin Beiber..."

Sasuke pulled away from me as we realized someone was rounding the corner, and I took a quick side step from him for good measure.

"Teme! There you are! Hey Sakura-chan!" Naruto said his 1000-watt smile beaming at me. It's a wonder none of us go blind from being around him too much. Actually I understand why Shino always wore sunglasses in junior high, he was Naruto's lab partner in Earth Science.

"Hey..." Kiba trailed off giving a small nod at Sasuke and letting his eyes fall on me. I turned my gaze to Naruto instead, who Sasuke just Hn'd at. Typical.

"Uh hey...What are you guys up to...." I said giving Sasuke a sideways glance. He was glaring Naruto down. If looks could kill...then who had ever been around Sasuke would be dead...Including me.

Naruto was either completely oblivious to Sasuke's stares, or he just pretended not to notice as he answered my question still extraordinarily happy. "We're going to go up to the roof and drop water balloons on random peoples heads!"

I noticed the backpack's both boys carried and shook my head.

"Naruto shut up! Do you want us to get caught before we actually do anything?" Kiba said landing a punch to Naruto's arm.

"Hey! I wasn't being loud and even if we did get caught we can't get in trouble if we didn't _do_ anything."

"Tsunadae-sama would punish us for even thinking about it!"

"That old lady's probably too drunk!"

"Naruto! Don't shout things like that either! You'll get us all in trouble! She has spies all over the school!" I said taking a step to punch him in the same spot Kiba had.

"Hey!" Naruto shouted letting his voice jump around the corridor like the bouncy balls Tenten and I through down the aisles of Walmart shouting "GO PIKACHU GO!" (Our goal is to do everything on the list).

"Shut up, Dobe." Sasuke said reaching across me to punch Naruto in the arm. Which cause him to brush against me and make me jump back.

_"Never fall asleep! You won't wake up. Destroy the guillotine! Before he does."_ My pocket literally screamed out loudly before I could pull it out of my pocket, and causing me to jump again. Damn, Tenten for setting her own ring tone to a screamo song. At least the second jump covered up the first.

The guys all stared at me and I smiled turning my back to them as I clicked a button on my phone.

"Hello?" I said into the phone gritting my teeth.

"Hey you!" Tenten called into my phone her voice chipper and high pitched.

"What do you want?"

"Hey, don't get pissy. Whatcha up to?"

"Plotting your deaths, where are you?"

"Oh noz! Your being mean, I don't think I'll tell you who your next date is then."

"What? Who, no forget it, I don't even care. I need to talk to you."

"You do? Well where are you I'll meet'cha there."

"The second floor of the main building..."

"Perfect! Don't move."

I heard a muffled talking and then nothing. She hung up.

"Ugh!" I snarled clicking the end button on my phone and shoving it back in my pocket angrily, and probably way to hard for the delicate piece of technology. I really loved the thing, I should remember not to abuse it so much. I should probably get one of those protective clip on cases for it...hmm. Then I remembered who I was with and looked up.

Sasuke raised his eyebrow at me. I'm getting a little sick of him doing this.

"Uh, Tenten is meeting me here." I shrugged and looked at the floor. Hey, it's kind of hard to look Sasuke in the eye ever, on a count of his sexiness, let along when you just kissed him.

"Awesome! She'll love this." Naruto smiled patting his backpack and earning an eye roll from Kiba.

"We should get her to lure Neji outside so we can get him."He smiled mischievously.

I swear, these guys were still little kids. "Wait, what do you mean by 'lure'?"

"There you are."

Naruto and Kiba turned around as Sasuke and I looked behind them to discover the source of what was just said.

"Hey Itachi!" Naruto smiled holding his hand up for a high five. Itachi stared at it for a few agonizingly silent moments, then reluctantly raised his hand up and half halfheartedly slapped it against Naruto's when he discovered the blonde was completely serious.

"Hello." He nodded to us, smirking at Sasuke's scowl.

"What the fuck do you want Itachi?" Sasuke said still scowling.

"Aw, Sasu-chan mother would be horrified to hear that filthy mouth of yours." Itachi smiled (evilly? I couldn't be sure).

"Shut up, and go away."

"Sasuke-teme! Why are you so mean to Itachi?" Naruto said frowning. I suddenly remembered sitting in the courtyard next to Naruto last year during the school carnival.

We both sat at a picnic table munching on the biggest bags of cotton candy we could find. All of the bags were divided into half blue and half pink cotton candy. Naturally I only wanted pink and Naruto decided blue tasted the best. (I can't really taste a difference, is that just me?) Amid scarfing down pure sugar, he had confessed he had always wished he wasn't an only child. It made me realize why he always got so upset with Itachi and Sasuke's constant fighting. I wonder if he told Sasuke that?

"Shut up Naruto, you don't know anything." Sasuke's eyes flashed to Naruto but jumped back to Itachi as he started to speak.

"See, Sasu-chan is just an emo who needs to get laid. Naturally, he envies my abilities." Itachi said smirking at Sasuke as he patted Naruto's shoulder. "But, I'm not here to torture my little brother today."

"Then what do you want?" Kiba piped in.

"Sakura-chan."

"What?" Sasuke and I said at the same time.

"We're going on a date."

"Wow! Sakura your going to date Itachi AND Sasuke?"

Thank you Naruto for stating the hell that is my life in front of the two of the people creating said hell. I keep you around for your honesty. I noticed Itachi smirking at Sasuke, which caused me to turn and look at him as well.

He looked pretty pissed off, and normally it was hard to visibly tell if Sasuke was actually mad considering he had the emotional range of a pancake.

Pancakes don't even have faces.

Most of the time...

Itachi had managed to spark something in him, because he clenched and unclenched his fists before turning to me and glaring.

I opened and closed my mouth, not knowing what to say. Why was he glaring at me? This wasn't my fault! Well maybe it was, I mean it's my list right? I didn't even choose it though! "Wait, Tenten?" My brain clicked back on.

"She told me you would be here."

That bitch, she hadn't been coming to meet me, she sent Itachi to!

"Those sneaky bitches!" I said astounded. Damn, I fell into these traps way too easily.

"Um?" Itachi cocked his head the side and stared at me.

He looked a lot like Sasuke, but more bad boy. I took a second to take in his whole appearance, with the dark hair swept back into a low ponytail and the maroon tee/ black leather jacket combo. A leather jacket? Seriously? I thought that was just a fantasy.

_"I never though that you would be the one, acting like a slut when I was gone. Maybe you shouldn't ooh oh kiss and tell?"_ A bratty voice sang from my pocket as I dug it out and smashed my thumb against the send button.

"What the hell do you want, Ino?" I said angrily into the phone ignoring the way Kiba stared at me when I said her name.

"Go. On. The. Date."

"What?"

"GO ON THE DATE WITH HIM NAOOOW!" She screamed into the phone making me hold it out in front of me. Freakin' spazzes! Itachi gave me a winning smile as I pulled the phone back to my ear when she was done.

"I don't think now is really a good time."

"Sakuraaa!" Ino whined, but before I could say anything else Itachi's hand slid around my wrist and his other hand pried my phone out of my grasp clicking the end button and dropping it into the front pocket of his jeans. I stared at him my mouth falling open as he turned around, and carefully dragged me down the hallway.

* * *

"There are some CD's in the glove box."

"Huh?" I said turning my head towards Itachi.

"CD's are in the glove box, pick whatever you want."

"Oh, right." I said staring at the glove box in front of me. I blinked. Itachi sighed and reached over me pulling the little door down, grabbing one of the cases on top of the pile, and closing it before his arm retreated back to his side of the car.

His car.

Which I was in.

I don't know much about cars, so I can't tell you what kind of sports car he has, but it's hella nice. I mean it's fire engine red and has the little mustang symbol on it. Complete with smooth beige seats. Dream car of thousands of teenagers everywhere.

I was suddenly self conscious of whether or not I had tracked any dirt in on the floor mat and I found myself checking my hair discreetly in the side mirror.

Crap was I nervous.

Itachi flipped open the CD case open and popped the CD out, sliding it in carefully into the built in CD player above the radio.

He dropped the closed case inside the side of his car door and glanced at me.

I bit my lip. He smiled. I bit my lip harder. Was it that obviously how nervous I was? Oh god I'm just freaking out aren't I?

He turned back to the road as the light flashed to green and we sped off as a familiar beat filled the car.

_"So here's another day, I spend away from you. Another night I'm on another broken avenue. My bag is ripped and worn, then again now so am I."_

"Omfg!" I exclaimed.

"Omfg?"

"Yeah you know, O.M.F.G. Oh my fucking God? Omfg." I said suddenly sounding out the acronym, a habit I picked up from Tenten.

_"Hotels are all the same, your still away from. Another day another dollar that I'll never see."_

"Uh, okay. So what is it?"

"Oh! Yeah! I didn't know you liked Marianas Trench!" I exclaimed.

"Oh...yeah they're pretty good. You like 'em too?" He said glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

_"Take me with you, I start to miss you. Take me home I don't wanna be alone tonight."_

"They're my favorite band!" I smiled at him. "What's your favorite song by them?"

"This one."

"Beside You is my favorite. It's so sweet." I sighed, if only a guy would right such a great song with me in mind. "What other music do you like?" I said sitting up straighter. I had at least something in common with him, therefore something to talk about, therefore a chance to get to know him and not look like a scared kitten cowering on his very expensive upholstery.

"Uh, whatever is in the glove box, really." He shrugged looking from side to side before making a left turn. I popped the glove box back open and pulled out a handful of CD's.

"Alesana, The Audition, Senses Fail, 30 Seconds to Mars? Shit we like the same music." I said dropping the cases back into the compartment with a clatter and shutting it again. Suddenly I felt much more comfortable being alone in a fast car with a hot guy that's sort of a stranger, in the sense that I've hardly said two words to him in my lifetime. Then a thought dawned on me. "Uh, where are we going?"

Itachi smirked at me. "It's a surprise." Maybe I should have been scared, considering he was sort of a stranger and he could be taking me to an empty warehouse to be raped and murdered...

Well at least I wouldn't die a virgin...and Itachi is pretty hot. No seriously, that would be horrible, but Itachi isn't that kind of person...Not that I would really know, actually.

I need an escape plan! I sank back into the seat and chewed my lip. Wow did I wish I had taken a few lessons in Tenten's karate class last summer.

Instead I focused on where we were by staring intently out the window. If I managed to escape, I'd need to know how to get to help. As we kept going, I started to get a sinking feeling in my stomach. We were in the downtown area. As we parked, I stared at Itachi for confirmation.

"Here." He smiled.

I looked back out my window, there is no way in hell I'm setting foot in the Akatsuki, aka the notorious night club, aka where the majority of Ino and Tenten's crazy drunken stories come from.

"It's only eleven, it'll be practically empty." He said as he got out. I watched him walk around the front of the car and pull open my door.

I shook my head. "Uh-uh. I'm not going in there." I crossed my arms over my chest.

"Come on, it isn't that bad."

"Nope, I'll wait in the car, you have fun." I said looking up into his eyes and wishing I hadn't. Gosh he was hot, and the puppy dog look he was giving was leaving me defenseless.

He took advantage of my transfixed state by pulling me out of the car. "Itachi!" I squeaked as he slipped his arm around my waist and pulled me towards the doors.

"Hush Sakura." He smiled as he dragged me in.

* * *

I looked around at the huge room. Half of which was a lit up dancefloor packed with people, the other half littered with tables and booth, the left wall a long bar where three bartenders were rapidly twirling around bottles. I stood rooted to the spot in a daze.

Neon bright red and white flames crawled up black walls and swirled across the ceiling, curling around the fixtures holding flashing strobe lights. I was starting to get disoriented.

Itachi's arm around my waist wasn't helping.

He steered me towards a booth and slid in across from me smiling. "You know it was easier getting you in here than I thought it would be, I was prepared to carry you in over my shoulder if I had to."

"Huh." I said giving a small shrug of my shoulders and staring out at the dance floor, I think Itachi and I have a difference in what we define "practically empty".

"Want a drink?"

"No thanks." I said. I've heard enough stories to know it wise not to drink here, there tended to be an easily concealed higher liquor content in the drinks. Not that that was really bad, per se, but if I was going to get dragged into the alley out back and murdered I would have better chance at surviving, if I wasn't drunk.

"Oh." Itachi said leaning back and giving a small sort of sigh as he looked out at the dance floor as well.

Shit, I didn't want him to think I was a waste of time. He probably assumed I was just some sheltered prude. "On second thought, I think I want one."

He looked back at me and smiled. "Anything specific?"

Well considering my lack of experience drinking I didn't really know what to order. I figured asking for a wine cooler would be lame and I had only heard of a sex on the beach in movies, so I didn't know what was really in it.

"Anythings fine." I said trying to be nonchalant as he continued to give that sexy smile and stand up. I watched him make his way towards the bar before my gaze wandered back to the people gyrating around the room like lunatics.

"How's it going?" Ino said sliding in next to me and pushing me towards the inside of the booth. Tenten and Hinata appearing opposite of me.

"What the fuck? You guys just materialized out of no where!" I said dumbfounded as Tenten just winked.

"How's it _going_?" Ino said.

"Oh fine considering Sai is a jackass, Lee made a fool out of me, Kiba was only on The List to get closer to you, you guys keep ignoring me, and set me up with Itachi, here of all places!" I growled at her.

"What?!" Hinata and Tenten said together. "Kiba was just using you?"

"Wow. Wow. Wow. That isn't what I meant, but holy crap that fucking dog is going to get put to sleep." She said before glancing towards the bar to check if Itachi was on his way back.

"Oh and did I mention I made out with Sasuke in the hallway?" I added.

"OHMYGODWHAT?!" Tenten shouted as Hinata and Ino gasped. I kicked Tenten under the table, which didn't do much damage because I was wearing flats and well, it's Tenten nothing I can do would physically hurt her.

"Holy shit forehead!" Ino said flabbergasted.

"We should talk about the rest of your day later. How is your date _now_ going?" Hinata asked.

"Uh, well it pissed off Sasuke, I don't know what to talk about, I'm nervous as hell, oh yeah and I'm _here_." I finished with emphasis waving my hands about.

"Well when he gets back, drink whatever he got you." Tenten said. "You need some liquid confidence. Then go out on the dance floor, you won't have to worry about talking."

"B-B-But." I stammered as they all got up.

"We have to go, he's coming." Ino hissed.

"Good luck." Hinata said before they slipped off.

Maybe their advice seemed sort of sensible I thought as Itachi set a curvy glass in front of me with an pink drink inside."There you go." He smiled as he sat down.

I gripped the cup shivering at the icy condensation coating it. I lifted it to my lips and took a small sip, it tasted kind of like someone mixed two different packets of koolaid together. I took a bigger drink.

"So, what else do we have in common other than great musical taste?"

"Uh...I don't know?" I said washing down my fumbled words with more of fancy drink. An awkward silence passed as he watched me down the rest of the glasses contents. I stared at it for a moment. "So let's go dance, yeah?"

"Sure?" He said as we exited our booth. I slipped my hand in his and pulled him towards the dancefloor.

We were sucked into the crowd and I pressed closer to him, the more I let the music run through me. I felt fantastic. Giddy and buoyant like if I kept dancing I'd be able to float up through the ceiling. I giggled at the thought of blowing up into the clouds like a lost balloon.

After several spins and twirls I realized I really had to pee. I stood up on my tip toes and leaned into Itachi. "Be right back." I shouted into his ear over the music.

As I weaved back through the crowd I passed the bar. I stopped debating whether or not to get another one of those delicious koolaid drinks, but I didn't even know what they were called. I turned and skipped towards the bathroom instead and just as I neared it the men's restroom door swung inward and someone walked out.

No, not just someone Shikamaru.

"Shika-kun!" I exclaimed and he looked at me just as surprised.

"Sakura-chan? What are you doing here?"

"What are _you_ doing here?" I asked tilting my head.

"Choji dragged me along." He shrugged.

"Hmm Hmm Hmm." I nodded humming with the beat of the music. "Well I've missed you Shika-kun!" I said wrapping my arms around his neck and pulling him into a tight hug.

"Uh, Sakura?" He said seeming nervous. Why was he nervous? He was never nervous, and we were best friends, he had no reason to be nervous around me.

"I can't stop thinking about you." I mumbled into his shoulder. Which was the truth, I was constantly worried about facing him in class after Ino had told me he was added to The List. I wasn't sure how I felt about that yet. It didn't seem like a very bad thing...

"Wha-?" He said stopping and staring at me as I lifted my head off his shoulder to meet his gaze. I glanced down at his mouth and leaned in to close the extra inch or so gap there was between our lips.


	14. Chapter Thirteen

**A/N: I still don't own Naruto etc. etc. etc.**

**Here's the next chapter. etc. etc. etc.**

**I'm kind of a lot sleepy right now, so I'm going to leave this chapter hanging and probably go sleep.**

**:) Enjoy?**

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I broke the kiss first, drawing in a slow and ragged breathe as I met his gaze. He just blinked at me and his mouth hung open a little bit.

"Uh...I have to use the restroom." I mumbled shrinking back and reaching in the general direction for the door handle, only to look like an idiot grabbing at air because the bathroom doors here _pushed _open. I gave a nervous "Ha...Ha." when my hand fell flat against the smooth silver door and I quickly slipped into the gap I made and shut it behind me.

I stood there for a minute breathing in and out. It's funny how one moment can make me feel sober. I could barely hold my alcohol on the rare occasion I do drink. The very rare occasion. And now I had made a total and complete mess of myself. One look from those familiar dark eyes and any cloudiness that drink had given my brain had evaporated.

Dammit. Clouds. Shikamaru loves watching clouds. I just fucking kissed my best friend.

I stood there leaning on the door for another minute before I was shoved forward with enough force to leave me pressed against wall.

"Ahh?" I let out as I caught myself and turned around to see the culprits who had been so rude. Alright maybe it was sort of my fault for leaning on the door anyway, but who did I see?

"The fuck was that Forehead?!" Ino whisper yelled at me. Although I couldn't figure out why, because I was a foot away from her.

"Holy shit Sak. I didn't know you were such a vixen." Tenten snickered. "We should drag you here more often, I think you could rival Ino."

"Don't say that!" Hinata glared at Tenten, coming to my defense before turning her lavender eyes on me. "Sakura-chan, what happened?" She said in the same way my mother would if I had gotten in trouble. Which made me feel worse. Really did she have to act like what I had done was so wrong, I knew it already.

"Mafasldkfja." I said pushing past them and going into the handicap stall.

"Sakura, you need to explain! One second we saw you dancing with Itachi and the next you were kissing _Shikamaru. _What is he even doing here?" Ino said pushing against the stall door, only to discover I had locked it.

"I don't know! I should never ever ever have listened to you guys. FROM THE BEGINNING! I wouldn't have gotten into this mess in the first place!"

"Psh! This is not our fault." Tenten said. I knew by her voice the exact pose she had taken on; Shoulders back, hand on hip, feet planted firmly, and a slight shaking and bobbing of her head as she talked with a possible waggle of the finger.

"Are you serious right now?!" I said at the top of my lungs as I yanked open the stall door to see her waggling her finger at me.

"Yes, I'm serious! Face it Sakura-chan, you always hide from everything. Everyone and everything, because your afraid of things changing and most of all your terrified of losing control of the situation. We finally pushed you out of your comfort zone, and you thought you couldn't handle it. You still think you can't handle it, but you are. Your living more than you have all of high school because we pushed you out of your little box, out of your dorm room, away from your same group of friends, and into something new. And you have to admit, your enjoying it. Your pissed off, your freaking out, your probably slightly disoriented and have had way more brain damage these past couple days than is healthy, but there's that part of you that actually loves this." She said finishing with a cross of her arms.

This is why these people are my friends. They get me to do the worst things, they get me in horrible situations, they're terrible influences, and they really get under my skin. But they always have the best intentions, they always know just the right thing to say at the right moment, and they're way smarter than I give them credit for. And truly, sometimes, they're just right.

Even if I'm a little drunk right now, even if they turned me into a slut, even if I've embarrassed myself more than I think is humanly possible, I did something. I can look back and go wow remember those crazy times we had? Maybe this is just the alcohol making Tenten's speech seem rational, but I feel like I have a different perspective on all of this. Suddenly I can manage to put everything back in place where it should be. Or at least I can make a puzzle where the pieces I can salvage can fit.

"I hate you guys sometimes." I sighed in exasperation and before Tenten could open her mouth to say something else I added, "but I love you the majority."

"That's right." Ino said pinching my cheek. I waved her off and ended up tipping into Hinata a bit.

"I think you've had a long day. We should get you home." Hinata said hugging me.

"We can't take her home." Ino said.

"Why the hell not?" I said. I swear if she had been making her sex-me eyes at some guy and didn't want to leave I would throw her through the wall.

"Two reasons." She said holding up a peace sign. "One: Itachi-kun. Two: Shikamaru-kun."

"Damn." I hung my head and stared down at the black tiled floor. Was the glitter on the floor actually in the tile or from various girls trampling through here? It looks like its in the tile...Geez this place even has snazzy tiles.

"Sakura-chan! Stop getting all distracted we need an action plan." Hinata chastised.

"There aren't any windows to sneak out of." Ino looking around the bathroom.

"Remember when we escaped that horrible double date through the window in the men's room?" Tenten snorted. "Your skirt got caught on the frame and you didn't want it to tear, but a guy walked by outside and saw you hanging out the window and could see down your shirt." Her laughed grew louder. "And-Haha-and then you got pissed and tried to hit him but you couldn't move from the window."

"Es tee eff you, hoe." Ino said sourly. "Well there are four of us, Hinata you get Sakura to my car, I'll tell Itachi-kun we have to go. Tenten you distract Shikamaru-kun if he sees us. 'Kay?"

"Ten-four." Tenten saluted.

* * *

Tenten and Ino swiftly broke away from Hinata and I as we tried to swiftly weave through the crowds of people and now packed tables. Suddenly I realized what Itachi meant when he said it had been practically empty earlier. I turned my head to look for Tenten and Ino in the sea of people but the way they were dancing it was just that. A sea, with rolling waves crashing about haphazardly and making me worried that Ino and Tenten wouldn't be able to navigate back to the car safely. Hinata gripped my hand tighter as she steered ahead of me, used to these types of perilous journeys and I was reminded how much experience they had in these places.

We finally stepped out onto the sidewalk and I breathed in the cool night air deeply, because all that body heat had made the club stuffy and too warm. I let out a relieved exhale and turned to Hinata who I realized was frozen in place staring down the sidewalk. Confused I poked her in the side, but she didn't flinch. I followed her gaze and realized what had freaked her out.

We weren't getting out of this that easily, of course we weren't. The higher powers of the universe were throwing everything they had at me.

"Hina-chan!" Naruto said looking away from Sasuke in the middle of what appeared to be an intense conversation. "Uh, what are you doing here?" He asked nervously which I found unusual for the blonde. No matter what the pressure he was usually pretty collected and seeing Hinata wasn't that big of a deal...

"N-N-Naruto-kun. W-we just came to pick up S-Sakura-chan." She said her face reddening as she linked her arm in mine and pulled me close, displaying me to Naruto.

"Oh!" Naruto said turning to me. It was silent while he glanced between Sasuke and I, the former who was making a point of looking anywhere but at me. "So...Why couldn't your ride bring you home?" He finally asked and I could see how curious he was about the situation. I could tell they both knew Itachi had taken me here.

"I wanted to leave early...This place isn't really my cup of tea." I said mentally slapping myself. Cup of tea? Who says that anymore?

Apparently, Sasuke had decided to notice my existence and "blessed" me with a scrutinizing look, but I figured he was satisfied with the fact that I had left instead of hanging around drooling on Itachi like every other girl in our grade would have done.

"Oh, yeah it's kind of intense." Naruto said running a hand through his spiky hair his eyes flitting back to Hinata. "Uh...Hina-chan? Do you think I could talk to you?"

Hinata's grip tightened on my arm and I saw a flash of her red tipped ears before her dark hair fell over them as she looked down at her feet.

God, if she fainted I would be in trouble.

"S-sure, Naruto-kun." She said, steadier than expected and she slipped away from me quickly as Naruto and her walked 10 feet away and turned they're backs to us.

"What's that all about?" I said with a huff forgetting who exactly was next to me and what exactly I did with this person in a particular hallway earlier today.

"The dobe's finally asking her out."

"What?!" I said wheeling around to face him. "Naruto-kun has a crush on Hina-chan!?"

Sasuke rolled his eyes. "Isn't it kind of obvious?" Was it?

I put my index finger to my lips in thought. He did always sit by her. He was especially sweet to her. They would make a good couple. He probably pays more attention to her than any other girl I see him around.

"Ohmygosh! They would be adorable together!" I grinned excitedly. Why, oh why, does Sasuke not share my enthusiasm?

"Hn." I punched him in the arm.

"Can't you be happy for them? He's your best friend."

"Hn."

"Your such a jackass sometimes."

"Hn."

"You should expand your vocabulary, grunting like a caveman deludes people into thinking your brain is just as primitive."

"Hn. Shut up."

"Very creative." I said crossing my arms. Where the hell was Tenten and Ino anyway? I glanced at Naruto and Hinata, they both appeared to be a little red faced. Cute.

"Where did that ass park my car?" Sasuke said distracting me from snooping.

"Huh?"

"Itachi, he took my car. Where did he park it?"

"He took your car?"

"Yeah, you know the red car you rode here in. It's mine."

"Why did he take your car?"

"His is in the shop, plus he's an asshole. Didn't even ask me." Sasuke said clearly peeved he had to explain something like this. As if it was obvious to me whose car was whose when I had never seen either of them before. Stupid boys.

"Wait, so those CD's. They're all yours?"

"Yeah."

"You and Itachi-kun like the same music?" Wow that was weird. I hadn't realized they would have something in common other than genetics.

"No, he listens to all that techno bullshit." He sighed examining the dark brick work of the building we were standing by. Masonry is so interesting, right?

Wait. Hold up. Pause. Freeze this and rewind.

I wasn't in Itachi's car.

I was in Sasuke's.

Itachi and I aren't musical soul mates.

Sasuke and I are.

Let's chock being lied to for no reason on the list of things I've done today shall we?

Why the hell did he lie to me? "Stupid boys and they're stupid stupidity." I said out loud because I was still a bit buzzed and I have the habit of talking as I think. "Why are they so difficult and cryptic. God I knew Ino shouldn't have added Itachi on the list, I knew it."

"Hn?" Sasuke raised an eyebrow at me for the fiftieth time. Which made me annoyed and find him very sexy, the latter making me more annoyed. Apparently to get back into Sasuke-kun's good graces all you needed to do was hint at disliking Itachi.

"Stop doing that! God you stupid boys and your stupid sexiness, its so annoying." I dropped my face into my palm. "I'm such a slut."

"Sakura?"

"What?" I snapped.

"Did you just imply that you find me sexy?"

I stared him dead in the eyes and with the most seriousness I could manage said, "Fuck you, Uchiha," just as the door to Akatsuki opened up, briefly letting out the sound of throbbing music before it shut with a heavy think.

"Sak, we have a small problem." Tenten said biting her lip.


	15. Chapter Fourteen

**A/N: OKAY I KNOW! This is incredibly short...this is even like a chapter.**

**I'm terribly sorry, but I just wrote it and lalala I felt like leaving it cut off there.**

**Also I'm very distracted with Kaichou wa Maid-sama manga at the moment. (You know they're making an anime? I did not know this.)**

**Anyway here you go?**

**

* * *

**

I stared at Tenten for a moment, watching her eyes glance over at Sasuke. I imagined the gear in her head turning and calculating the priorities of our situation, but when she looked back at me I knew whatever "problem" was going on, had made number one.

I realized I had to decide what I was going to do as well. Deal with Sasuke or whatever was going on inside.

"What happened?" I said already walking towards where she was standing propping the door open and letting all the warmth and pounding music out.

Sasuke can wait.

"Ino." She said before turning around and letting me catch the door before it swung shut behind her.

Yeah, Ino. Go figure.

* * *

"_Don't stop, make it pop  
DJ, blow my speakers up."_

"Fuck are you serious?" I whined as soon as I registered the song choice. This was the soundtrack to Ino's life.

"_Tonight, I'mma fight  
'Til we see the sunlight."_

That's when I noticed the large crowd gathering around the bar and the commotion of people cheering and catcalling. As Tenten pushed passed them, I debated turning around. I really didn't want to see this.

"_Tick tock on the clock  
But the party don't stop, no."_

And there she was. On top of the bar.

Dancing on top of the bar.

Her hips moving fluidly from side to side as she raised her arms above her head and shook her long blonde curtains across her face. She stared at the crowd of mostly guys cheering her on and grinned before singing along to her jam. Not that anyone could hear her voice.

"_With my hands up  
You got me now  
You got that sound  
Yeah, you got me."_

"Damn it! Ino get down here, you can practically see up your skirt!" Tenten called as we stood pressed against the edge to the bar. Ino stared down at us and smiled.

"Hey!" She waved down at us.

"You whore! Get off the bar now!" I yelled up at her.

"_Now, the party don't start 'til I walk in."_

Ino frowned but that was the only thing that told me she heard me because then she continued to rock out to her song as the beat picked up again.

"How the hell did this happen?" I said turning towards Tenten and glaring at her.

"Uhm, some guys bought her a drink and she started talking to them and then she started a dance off with this little slut and she won. This is like her drunken victory dance..." Tenten grimaced looking back up at Ino and groaning as she dropped down low and then stood back up, making a few guys groan in an entirely different way.

"We have to get her down before she falls and breaks her stupid head open. Not that her brain isn't already damaged from aerosol and cosmopolitans."

"Yeah, but there's no chance." Tenten shook her head.

"Fuck that, I'm getting her down. Now." I said glaring back up at her.

"_'Til we see the sunlight  
Tick tock on the clock  
But the party don't stop, no."_

"Ino, get your slutty ass down here." I said reaching my hand out to her. She smiled and bent over to reach for my hand, causing a few whistles shrill enough to be heard over the music. I was momentarily relieved until I realized what was happening.

Ino was pulling me on to the bar with her, and it was either balance or fall straight over the other side of the counter. I froze still clutching Ino as I heard various shouts from the crowd.

"Dance with me Sakura!~" Ino sang as the music cut into another song.

"_Maybe I need some rehab  
Or maybe just need some sleep  
I got a sick obsession  
I'm seeing it in my dreams."_

I blinked as I looked out at the crowd. Why were they playing another Ke$ha song? Why the hell was I on top of a bar with my best friend who was shimmying for the boys below in a drunken stupor? Why had I ended up in this club in the first place?

Suddenly I was doubting this whole look-back-and-go-wow-I-did-something thing I had been spouting earlier. No, fuck that shit. Fuck this shit. Just....Fuck man.

You know? Maybe you don't know. Maybe no one gets it. Maybe I'm not even getting it. I don't know how I actually ended up to this point. When it rains it pours, and it's pouring. On my social life. My formally nonexistent, then existent, now destroyed, social life.

"_I'm making those desperate calls  
I'm staying up all night hoping  
Hitting my head against the wall "_

Ino linked our hands together and pulled my arm above our heads directing me to dance along with her. As far as I saw it, I had a few choices.

a.) Dance with her, because if you can't get them off the bar join them right?

b.) Jump off the bar.

c.) Drag Ino down with me as I jump.

Not exactly the best list, which is precisely why I started to move my hips to the beat a bit as I thought of an escape route.

"_What you got boy is hard to find  
I think about it all the time  
I'm all strung out, my heart is fried  
I just can't get you off my mind."_

I looked up into the audience dancing along and watching us. That's when I spotted Itachi his eyebrows raised with a look that could only be understood as impressed. My eyes darted away a moment later as a flash of yellow appeared out of my peripheral vision. Naruto and Sasuke were standing deep in the sea of people next to a red faced Hinata, the three of them shocked. This plan wasn't working to well. We were supposed to get out of here without anyone seeing us, mainly me. Now I had drawn the attention of the entire club because although Ino is gorgeous and sexier than me, I have pink hair.

And I'm standing on the bar.

Next to her-who-draws-the-attention-of-everyone.

I frantically looked down at Tenten hoping she could rescue me or provide a distraction, but all hope was lost when I saw her snickering as she held out her treasured iPhone, to no doubt document my horrific experience.

"_Because your love your love your love is my drug  
Your love your love your love  
I said your love your love your love is my drug  
Your love your love your love."_

I tried to bend down to grab for Ino's phone but before I could hardly bend my right knee, my foot slid and I was balancing half on one foot and half on pure, unadulterated air. I had a moment to think, "shit" before I toppled into the crowd landing hard against a few people but not exactly hitting the floor or a stool, thank the higher powers (who may delight in destroying my social life and mental health but are forgiving when it comes to my physical person).

There was a loud chorus of "Oooohhhh!'s" and winces as I fell and even a few laughs, but I only heard one, "Are you okay Sakura-chan?'s" At least there was only one that I could hear, and it was coming from the same pair of dark brown eyes that had made me lose sight of my surroundings less than an hour ago.

Come to think of it, maybe that's why I only heard him ask if I was okay, I pretty much blocked out the rest of the room as I stared up at Shikamaru's face, plain worry and slight annoyance written all over it.

"Heh...Heh. I think I can move everything." I said knowing full well that was a lie. With his arms around my waist, staring at me like this I couldn't have moved for shit( or a billion dollars). I was rooted to the spot, faintly thinking about kissing him again, but mostly turning such a furious shade of red I knew it rivaled Hinata and clashed terribly with my hair color.

"Troublesome woman." He said a faint smirk playing on his lips.

* * *

**A/N: Wowza a lot of SakuShika love the past few chapters. (didn't really plan that) But don't worry if your a SasuSaku lover.**

**TBC?  
**


	16. Chapter Fifteen

**A/N: I have to do something.**

**Which is whoring out another story of mine. It's a oneshot, non-AU, SasuSaku sorta songfic.**

**Called Gravity. It's like if Naruto got Sasuke to come back etc.**

**So read it please :'(?

* * *

  
**

I think I'm going to throw up now.

No seriously, I feel kind of queasy. My stomach is in knots and I'm trying to swallow the lump in my throat that's making it nearly impossible for me to speak. Maybe that's a good thing, though? If any words did come out of my mouth it'd be a big blob that would embarrass me further.

Considering I'm already maxed out on embarrassment.

I just fell off the bar.

In front of everyone.

And it's caught on tape.

Yeah...

"Real smooth Sak!" Tenten laughed, pulling me out of my thoughts, away from Shikamaru's face, and out of his arms! No! You stupid woman get away from me!

Wait why did I keep thinking all this? It was Shikamaru!

"Are you alright? You didn't break anything did you?" She said more concerned as she jerked my arms around and examined them for bruises. If I had broken anything, she would've made it a lot worse.

"I'm fine." I said pulling out of her grip.

"Are you alright Forehead~?" Ino exclaimed as she practically glomped me. I was surprised she had been able to climb so quickly and gracefully off the bar.

"Fineeee." I groaned. I really did not want to be here right now. It seems all I'm doing is whining about how crappy my life is but seriously my head was a jumble of thoughts at the moment, and I could smell the Jack Daniel's on Ino's breath. I didn't need her drunken mouth to spit out anything to further complicate my reputation and friendships with anyone.

"I saw you fall and was like OH NOZ! You should be more careful next time." She finished staring at me seriously, or about as serious as she could at that moment. She was bouncing on the balls of her feet and pursing her lips dramatically. Honestly she didn't look serious at all, to anyone else it would seem sarcastic or mocking, somehow I knew she meant it though. As if being careful while dancing on bars was her responsibility to tell me, considering her experience.

"I don't think there's going to be a 'next time'." I said pointedly.

"Why not?" She said her brow furrowed the same way it does when she's working on algebra. (Actually have you ever seen Ino try to do her algebra homework? It's probably 7 on the top ten funniest things in the world.)

"There just isn't." I said at the same time an arm slid around my waist. "Huh?" I turned to see the owner only to find my current...date.

"I think there should definitely be a next time." Itachi smirked down at me.

"Why isn't there going to be?" Ino repeated, but I just ignored her.

"I second that!" Tenten said too loudly, making everyone turn towards her. She stared at me purposefully and I knew she was trying to send psychic messages into my brain. Dammit if only I had super powers!

I turned to my other side, as I had an epiphany, and realized what Tenten was trying to remind me of. Shikamaru!

He stood there looking rather uncomfortable, which is understandable since this environment doesn't suite him (or me).

We had always been buddies, ever since we were kids, even though Sasuke, Naruto, and I stuck together the majority of the time. I don't know how I was only just realizing him for what he really was.

A boy.

And not just a regular whatever kind of boy. Shikamaru was cute, hot even, and he wasn't just that. He was funny, smart, and sweet. Granted he was the king of lazy, but I didn't mind it most of the time, it was just a quirk that made him who he was. We were best friends for a reason, several, but I hadn't ever looked at him on a physical scale.

I took in how cute he looked in his black pants and light olive green button up shirt, that wasn't buttoned up or tucked in, because for Shikamaru that was too troublesome. Instead, it was open to reveal a brown T-shirt.

"Thanks for...uh catching me?" I said shrugging at him.

"Why isn't there going to be!?" Ino asked loudly, but everyone just blinked and pretended like she hadn't said anything.

"Heh, no problem." He said rubbing the back of his neck, which I suddenly found adorable. He glanced at Itachi and then said, "I think I'm going to go, then. Glad I didn't miss the show tonight...I'll leave you to your date." He said turning away.

"Bye!" I said weakly, turning back towards Itachi. "Thanks for the date," I smiled. "But I'm beat so I'll see you at school?" I really needed sleep. I didn't want this day to drag out any longer.

Itachi smiled back at me and I tried to remember if that was what Sasuke looked like if he smiled or not. Sasuke doesn't really smile much, he mostly smirks or frowns. "You'll definitely see me tomorrow." He said leaning in giving me a moment long peck on the lips, before he gave a small wave to Tenten and Ino and disappeared into the crowd.

"You realize you've gotten more action today then you have your entire life, right?" Tenten said to me.

"Wow do you realizeeee what just _happened_!" Ino said with too much emphasis and volume.

"Shut up both of you." I mumbled pinching the bridge of my nose and frowning. I had no idea how I was going to get up for classes tomorrow, let alone be coherent during said classes.

"Itachi just _kissed_ you!" She whisper screamed in my face. "Itachi kissed her!" She whispered to Tenten behind her hand.

"Ino...just shut up."

* * *

Here's a list of my best friends in the entire world as of an hour ago when I rolled out of my bed to throw my alarm clock across the room (breaking it), showered, and put on my uniform haphazardly only to practically crawl down the hallway to class.

Coffee. Thank you, thank you, thank you Kami for creating the essence of perfection, which is necessary to keeping me alive and in anything slightly less than a comatose state at the current point and time.

Concealer. Because you should see the circles under my eyes, and my skin looks a little bit blotchy regardless.

Hot water. I felt like a skank considering I was to tired to shower...this morning when we finally got home.

Mini straightner. More specifically a red bedazzled one.

Anything other than Ino. (Tenten is not included because she gave me a cookie dough pop tart. Which happens to be my favorite. Also I can never blame Hinata for anything.)

So I think that's it. Put me and that list on an island and I'd probably be happy. No alcohol, no school, no stupid friends, and definitely no boys.

* * *

I slid slowly into my chair at the usual black topped table I occupy in the Biology room, wincing at the bright fluorescent lights, that I realized this morning light the entire school. Damn there brightness to hell.

"Rough night?" The voice said next to me and I didn't even want to turn and see the smug look on his face. Mostly because my head hurt, but also I didn't want to hear about how I had bowed to the typical high school social hierarchy.

"Shut up."

"Why does your head hurt?" He said and I stole a glance at him out of the corner of my eye. He had a small smirk on his lips.

"Don't preach to me, you were there too." I said in defense. I hadn't even drunk enough to give me a hangover. I'm just exhausted and have hit my head way to many times.

"I'm not preaching, and _I_ wasn't drinking." He said leaning back in his chair to stretch. "Unlike someone I know."

"Why were you even there?" I said avoiding the last part. Did I mention that was my plan? That's my plan. To ignore my new romantic feelings towards Shikamaru, I don't want to ruin our friendship. I know that sounds dumb and cliché but he's important to me, I can't lose that because we had a drunken kiss.

"Choji dragged me." He said clearing his throat and sitting up to open his book, which was weird because he usually only uses his textbooks as pillows.

"Why the hell did Choji want to go to Akatsuki? It isn't a restaurant...Did he know that?"

Shikamaru sniffed and looked up at me blankly. The way he always did that made me feel like an idiot, so I shifted my weight in my seat and tapped my pencil on the cover of my notebook for something to do. "Do you think Choji is that much of an idiot?"

"No, I know he isn't. I just can't think of why he would want to be there." Really Choji would be so out of place.

"He only went so he could make me go with." He said quietly, going back to reading his text book.

"But why did he want you to go-" I started, but was cut off as the bell rang and Kurenai-sensei promptly stood up to start her lecture.

* * *

I know your probably wondering why I'm planning on _not_ pursuing my feelings for Shikamaru. You'll probably say I have to take a chance on love, blahblahblah, all that crap that the best friend says in those romance films to the main girl when she realizes the guy of her dreams is really her best friend and then she decides to accept it and run after him. They have an over the top romantic scene where they confess that "It's you. It's always been you." line and then kiss and the crowd dabs the corner of their eyes with neatly folded handkerchiefs, clap, and the girls all imagine that there's hope for their love lives. Basically you get it.

That just isn't me.

Actually I probably don't even have romantic aspirations for our relationship at all, I've thought about it and I can make sense of everything I'm feeling.

I'm constantly thinking about him, true. But he's my best friend! I haven't spent hardly any time with him or even talked to him since this whole thing started. It's weird not having him around. I can be myself when I'm around him, and that's what I miss most.

All I'm doing is clinging to him like a life raft, because I don't want to lose who I was before I started this stupid game.

Sure I kissed him a bit last night. That was just alcohol, major mistake on my part.

The one thing I am worried about though isn't whether or not I like Shikamaru in the wrong way, or even that I kissed him. It's that he won't like the person I'm turning out to be.

Will I even like the person I'm turning out to be?

* * *

I chose to completely ignore the club incident when talking to Shikamaru. I wasn't going to bring up the topic further than I had to, if at all possible. Which is why I didn't ask him to finish what he had been telling me at the beginning of first period. I just pretended like I forgot and we strolled of to Creative Writing.

Despite the general perverseness of Kakashi-sensei, he really is a good teacher and I love his class. However, when he was talking excitedly about having a favorite author as a guest speaker to our class I wasn't particularly paying attention.

In fact, I was pretty sure this particular author's "creative works" were a series of pornographic books Kakashi reads in class, as well as various other times in front and around students and faculty, during completely inappropriate situations. Be that as it may, I wasn't going to point this out.

It was useless anyway. He'd probably force me to read them all.

Instead I started to doodle swirls on a blank sheet in my notebook, imagining each spiral was another minute on the clock ticking down till classes were over and I'd get to crawl under my bedspread and die, or at the least fall into a heavy coma for the rest of the day.

I sighed with pleasure at the thought of a nice long coma. Oh how I love sleep.

That's how this all started, what I'm about to tell you that is. I was innocently sitting in class, minding my own business, when Naruto came bursting through the door shouting "Kakashi-sensei!" at the top of his lungs and waving his arms wildly back at the way he had come.

Being the lively person Kakashi is (cough sarcasm), and probably his general history in dealing with Naruto, all he did was blink.

Naruto-kun eventually realized what he was doing wasn't getting anywhere, so he stopped jumping around and verbalized his interpretive dance. "Kakashi-sensei, come quick! Someone broke the water fountain and it's spraying everywhere! People are falling all over the place!"

Kakashi just stayed leaned against his desk, sort of sitting on the very edge of it, before giving and exasperated sigh and telling us to stay seated as he followed Naruto out.

I took this opportunity to swivel my head towards my right, where Shikamaru was seated, and we exchanged a look. I know we both knew it was a distraction for something, it was plainly obvious, considering it's happened so many times. It was just a matter of time Kiba would come sliding down the hall in a canoe filled with girls or Sasuke and Neji sprinted by carrying an object of value that they had stolen from a teacher's office.

No really, it's happened before.

That's probably why I didn't think much of it and calmly went back to the optical illusion I was drawing on my paper. If I had known, I may have hidden under my desk, or the nearest bathroom, or just sprinted away, back to my dorm.

I really really really did not expect to find Sasuke-kun strolling into the room and walking up to my desk to hand me a gigantic white lily and then proceed to pick up my bag and gesture towards the door.

It was totally unexpected, so I followed him.

What else could I have done?

* * *

**A/N: So a bit of denial on Sakura's part. haha.**

**But the next chapter shall be devoted to SasuSaku.**

**I have a pregunta to ask you all though. (that means question)**

**Which pairing for this story do you like best?**

**Because I find myself having more and more fun writing ShikaSaku. D:**

**;) but ily people. Thank you thank you thank you for review/fav/alerting  
**

**My next update will be a lot sooner, i hope.  
**


	17. Chapter Sixteen

It sounds lame, I know. But it was the first time a guy had ever given me a flower or carried my books before. I felt stupid walking down the deserted hall twirling the lily in between my index finger and thumb, my book bag slung over his shoulder.

That's a lie. I didn't feel stupid at all. I felt that giddy excited feeling you get from being near a boy you like, when he does something that makes you think he might like you and fulfill all your fantastical, romantic wishes. Yeah every girl knows what I'm talking about.

I only feel stupid now, thinking back on how cheesy it was.

I stopped in the main hallway just in front of the stairs leading to the ground floor. He stopped on the first step and looked back at me.

"Where are we going?" I asked him lightly, tilting my head to the side and still twirling my oh-so pretty lily around and around.

He paused and looked straight into my eyes, in that way Sasuke-kun tends to do when he's being serious. I know I'm about to stop breathing for a moment when his black eyes stare into my soul (because that's what it feels like he's doing), with a look exceedingly mature for our age. It's one of those things that make me love Sasuke.

"Where do you want to go?" He said rather monotonous and without any particular emphasis on a word. But my pulse still quickened slightly with the look in his eyes. As if what he really said was that we could do anything together, right then.

"I...I don't know." I said finally.

"Well come on, then." He said, already walking quickly down the rest of the stairs. Leaving me to catch up to him.

* * *

I was seriously wondering where we were going once we reached the courtyard. I didn't want to sneak of campus again, and if we hung around a teacher would definitely notice and give us detention.

Maybe detention alone with Sasuke-kun wouldn't be so bad...

He walked nonchalantly, his hands in his pockets, towards the big cherry blossom tree and gently dropped my bag at the base of the tree.

It split into four thick branches from the base and those ran up a good 2 feet before jutting off up and outward with smaller branches, the tips decorated with full blossoms ranging from pale to carnation pink.

He climbed into the tree easily and stepped onto a lower branch before turning and reaching his hand out to me. I just stared at him dumbly for a moment.

"Come on." He said a little annoyed and wiggled his hand in an attempt to make me grab it. (It felt a little like that scene in Aladdin where he asks her if she trusts him.) I obliged, averting my gaze because I was getting butterflies. He helped me up and we climbed a branch higher, so the blossoms could conceal us.. I made my way to the last branch slowly, not wanting to let go of his hand.

He sat down beside me, letting me lean against the trunk.

I reminded myself to breathe because I was pressed close together with Sasuke and we're holding hands.

"S-Sasuke-kun?" I asked quietly.

"Hn?"

"Uhm...Why are we in a tree?"

He gave a small shrug of his shoulders and then sighed. "I come up here to think sometimes, you don't run into people when your in a tree."

I blinked at him, completely unbelieving.

"What?" He said probably creeped out by my staring. I should work on that, because being a creeper is a turn off.

"It's just...Well I come up here all the time too." I thought back to the last time I had sat up here. That was the night Deidara had approached me about the ad.

I had always avoided letting someone see me come up here. It was like my sacred haven. Finding out Sasuke felt the same way about it, and that he showed me made me smile.

"Heh, and well I'm glad I got you that lily then." He said looking up through the branches above us.

"What do you mean?" I studied his face as I waited for him to reply. I was seeing a small part of Sasuke I don't think anyone has ever seen. I wanted to take a mental picture and freeze him in time, just like this. This moment, forever. I noticed the tiny silvery scar he had just below his eyebrow. The one he had gotten because of me in elementary school.

* * *

I remember there was a gigantic jungle gym, and everyday at recess there would be a few kids sitting on the bars. Normally I would choose a middle one and hang upside down, letting my hair fall below me and saw with the breeze. Ino pointed out that whenever a girl did that she was showing her underwear because her skirt tipped upward...or downward. I didn't particularly care if anyone saw my underwear. It wasn't a big deal to me. I mean it was just like my bathing suit bottoms anyway.

No one had ever made it to the very top of the jungle gym, though.

Being a daredevil back then, I had decided to climb all the way so I could say I was the first one. As soon as I kept going passed the middle bars, one by one Sasuke thought it was a bad idea.

He kept shouting up at me and telling me to get down before I hurt myself. Naruto just cheered me on, extremely excited and hyper. He never really changed...

I climbed the rungs one by one, by the time I got to the very top there was a large crowd gathered around gasping and cheering me on. I made my way carefully to the middle and hung by my knees upside down, letting my skirt fall but not caring.

After a few minutes of hanging like that I realized the blood was rushing to my face and it was giving me a headache, when I finally tried to reach up and grab the bar my knees were gripping I couldn't reach it. I started to freak out and cry because as far as I saw it I was stuck until I fell off.

There was a lot of discussing down below and everyone decided someone had to reach the top to get me, so Sasuke nominated himself. It seemed like ages for him to make his way up to the top, and I might have started to cry just a bit. He reassured me he would help me once he climbed the last rung, and help me he did.

But as he helped me sit up on the bar, he fell backward of the jungle gym, cutting open his eyebrow on a wood chip.

I felt terrible whenever I looked at his stitches, and after they were removed I felt bad about the scar.

Now you could barely even tell it was there, and I wondered if he could barely remember that day.

* * *

"Naruto said I should give you flowers." I smirked as he rolled his eyes, who ever thought Naruto was a closet romantic? "He said I should give you a cherry blossom, for obvious reasons. My mother always loves lilies though. I figured I could just give you a lily and the whole tree. I guess it's already yours."

I followed his gaze and let my eyes wander up too, but there was nothing particularly interesting to look at. "I think it's funny how we use the same place to escape from everyone, and we never knew."

"I don't mind sharing it with you." Silence followed his words for more than a minute as I froze, staring up at the tree top, feeling each breath Sasuke took from the way his body moved next to me. Did he really just say that?

"Sasuke-kun?"

"Hn?"

"I think that's the nicest thing you've ever said to me." That sounds a bit bad. Like I'm implying he says mean things to me, he doesn't really. He used to call me annoying when we were kids but he never tried to stop hanging out with me, (cough like Ino cough) so I wasn't that bad. He doesn't usually say much anyway, maybe because he doesn't have to when Naruto talks so much. But Sasuke listens, which is just as good, sometimes even better.

"Hn."

Oh great, I managed to hit the off button again. Just when he was getting all sweet too.

He really needs to work on his social skills more.

I took my free hand and ran it through the back of my hair, only to find it get...stuck.

It isn't like my hair is all ratty and full of knots or anything, it doesn't have anything to do with my hair at all, it's the fact that I'm wearing a gaudy, fake emerald ring today as my "accessory". It sort of got caught in my hair.

I pulled at it a little but it didn't budge, if anything the strands caught in it got wrapped tighter. I gave a hard tug and yanked my head back a little, wincing. Sasuke didn't appear to notice anything though, somehow consumed in thought.

I slipped my finger from the ring, leaving it stuck in my hair.

"Sakura-chan?"

"Hm?"

"You got your ring stuck in your hair." He said flatly.

"Uhm, yeah...about that...it doesn't seem to want to come out." Sasuke slipped his hand out of mine (to my dismay) and reached for the ring in my hair, carefully unwinding the pink locks. I felt my face flush from his touch and bit my lip.

He gave an amused "hm".

"What?"

He slipped my ring back onto my ring finger, making me blush harder, without answering. What if one day that was a real diamond ring...

Oh gosh why am I thinking about that?! I'm in high school!

While I was fighting to not think about Sasuke and I getting married, Sasuke leaned into me more.

I glanced up at him and he stared at me a second before leaning in slowly. I froze and he paused our lips an inch apart.

We held that position for a minute, each silently daring the other to break their self control.

I could feel my face getting hotter and was sure that if I touched my finger to it would get burned, but I ignored it. Finally I felt like the tension between us would burst so I leaned in.

Too quickly...

Instead of a romantic kiss, my hand slid away from where it held on to the branch and I headbutted Sasuke with my abnormally large forehead. (I seriously think I was a ram in a past life.) I jerked away from him, my other hand flying to my forehead and leaning my weight back when I shouldn't have.

I mean I really shouldn't have, I was balancing on a tree branch.

That's probably why I fell, yanking Sasuke down with me.

I let out a scream just before we hit the ground, or Sasuke did, I suppose it would be more accurate to say "before I hit Sasuke" because that's what I did, land on top of him.

Way to kill the moment, right?


	18. Chapter Seventeen

**A/N: Okay this chapter is filled with bitch fits. Sorry 'bout that, kay? The next one I SWEAR will have...drumroll...**

**GAARA! XD because I know he still has his date with Sakura and because I love him dearly. I'm thinkin' some fun on the beach? :)**

**I love my reviewers of epic win you are amazing beyond all else, so thank you very much. :)  
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He landed with a big "Oof." I flipped over from my awkward position on my side, to my stomach and raised myself onto my hands and knees to relieve the pressure from his chest.

"Oh my gosh! Sasuke-kun I'm so so so sorry! I didn't mean to!" I immediately said my hands fluttering around his chest, neck, and face before going back to his chest again.

He groaned, his eyes still shut.

"Oh no your hurt bad! Do you need CPR?!" I had no idea what to do. Was he even breathing. I leaned down onto him, pressing my ear against his chest to hear his heart. His very manly, well defined chest.

I mentally berated myself for thinking dirty thoughts when Sasuke was possibly dieing. Okay probably not, but I wasn't thinking straight. His heart was in fact beating. So I lifted myself off his chest again. "Sasuke-kun? Are you okay? Can you talk?" I felt the stinging of tears forming.

"Sa-ku-ra." He said gritting his teeth. "I'm fine. I just got the wind knocked out of me."

"I am so sorry! I'm such an clutz!" I blinked rapidly, not wanting Sasuke to see me cry and make a bigger idiot of myself.

"It was my fault I should have waited till we were on the ground first to kiss you."

My face felt hot all over again. I had completely forgotten he had been about to kiss me, what with the knocking-him-out-of-a-tree thing and that I had been about to kiss him back. "Uhm..." I looked away. My brain felt completely jammed. Blocked up and useless.

"Well."

"Well what?" My voice squeaked out as I turned my head to look at him again.

"We're on the ground now." He smirked at my expression of surprise as he got on his elbows, me leaning over him. I hadn't even realized the position I was in.

My eyes were glued to his smirk as it inched closer to me.

"Whoa! Keep it PG, you two."

I jumped, reeling backwards off of Sasuke and turning my heads towards the source. Only 10 feet away was Sasori, in his school uniform; the sleeves of his white dress shirt rolled up to his elbows and his tie loosened. He looked as hot and unattainable as ever with his sleepy brown eyes and dark red shaggy hair. It took me a moment to remember that he did in fact go to school here, and was actually talking to me rather than being a figment of my rampant imagination.

"Hn. What do you want?" Sasuke said angrily. How could anyone be angry at Sasori? He was so laid back and down to earth. Not to mention attractive and—he was best friends with Itachi.

That must be why he didn't seem to like him. Oh and the fact that he interrupted our kiss.

Sasori probably thinks I'm a total slut now.

"Why do you have to say it like that?" Sasori said mock hurt.

"Because your annoying and bug the shit out of me." Sasuke grunted.

"Sasu-chan, Mikoto-chan would be horrified at your filthy mouth." Sasori frowned.

"Shut the fuck up."

"Tsk. Tsk. I'd hate for her to hear about this." He said waving his hand over Sasuke and I.

"Can I help you?"

"Sheesh, your so hostile. All I want is Sakura-chan." He said winking at me.

"Huh?" My heart stopped.

"I'm on The List too by the way." Sasori said to Sasuke ignoring me. "She is quite adorable." Sasuke set his jaw. "Hm. Sexy too."

Sasuke stood up. "Get the fuck away, Sasori."

Sasori tapped his chin thoughtfully, one arm wrapped across his chest. He leaned forward, "Nah I don't think so."

"I think so." The threatening tone clear in Sasuke's voice. Sasori didn't even bat an eyelash. He took hold of my arm lightly and pulled me toward him. He slid his arm around my waist and held me against him.

"Umm...Excuse me." I said trying to lean out of Sasori's grasp.

Sasuke's eyes were burning and Sasori just tilted his head in a subtle challenge for him to try something.

I didn't exactly know what it was Sasuke would do. Grab me and whisk me away into the sunset? He wouldn't actually hit Sasori would he?

Which one would win?

Actually that would be a pretty evenly matched fight...I should probably get away if this gets ugly, but on the off hand they duked it out it would be rather hot and entertaining.

I tried to pry his hand off my hip, but he intertwined my fingers with his. "Sakura-chan, stop trying to hold my hand."

"No! I-I-I." I was at a loss for words.

Sasori smirked at Sasuke before leaning in and pressing his lips lightly to my cheek. I felt his breath hovering over my ear and I shuddered as he whispered "I'll call you later."

He let go of me and saluted Sasuke before walking across the campus to the main lobby. We heard the bell ring distantly and people started milling by the windows and flowing out doors into the courtyard.

"Sasuke-kun?" I said quietly.

"Hn." He said after a minute, not even looking at me as he walked away.

* * *

I wasn't quite sure what to do. Trudge back to class so Sasuke could ignore me in art and Tenten could pester me in front of him? Naruto could announce loudly to the class my embarrassing fall off the bar or date with Lee? So I could see Sai and feel angry and embarrassed about his mean remarks towards my character? Or feel snubbed by Kiba because he was only using me to get close to my best friend?

Art was trouble, so I had just climbed back into the cherry tree and stayed there, hugging the branch I was sitting on (as not to fall off again) and contemplating what exactly to do with my life.

Also why the universe seemed to not want me to kiss Sasuke-kun again.

Insert deep sigh as the lunch bell finally rang and I climbed down from my post, trying to blend in with the people milling around for their mandatory social time (because face it that's what lunch really is) and trying to look like I didn't just climb out of that tree over there.

I stood at the end of the lunch line and let everyone cut me without putting up a fight, frankly I wasn't in any hurry to sit down. Really I felt like skipping the rest of my classes as well and going back to bed.

I grabbed a few things absently and paid only to stand like an idiot and contemplate where I should sit.

I decided I'd go sit in the courtyard away from the mainstream gossipy cafeteria but there was a slight problem.

"Sakura-chan!" I had to pass the dreaded table of doom on my way out the big double doors.

I hesitated not looking at them, but that slight distinction would let them know I heard them. So now I couldn't very well keep walking because then they'd know I was ignoring and avoiding them and they would be upset and probably come after me.

I turned towards them and waved. "I gotta go study." I didn't give them time to add anything else before I was rushing out into the open air and scanning the outside tables.

My eyes spotted the spiky ponytail immediately and in the middle of walking towards Shikamaru and Choji I realized I had a small smile on my face.

"Hey guys." I said dropping down next to Choji.

"Hey." Choji nodded his mouth full of food.

"Your not sitting with the kings and queens today?" Well hello to you to, "best friend".

"No, I'm getting kind of sick of them." I said brushing it off and opening up my water bottle.

"What happened with Sasuke-kun?" He said trying to imitate my girly voice.

"Uh...Nothing really." I said staring down at my tray.

"Oh right, the romantic flower giving and cutting class lead to nothing. Especially when he showed up to art without you looking like he was going to commit murder. Tenten almost exploded." Shikamaru said lazily. How does he do that? Honestly, no one else could pull off saying something so dramatic and gossip worthy with such a bored tone.

"Tenten is flipping? Great." I'd have to relive my terrible and still embarrassing time all over again would I? Yeah, exactly.

"So what happened?" Choji asked, but really it sounded more like; "Waa hupphand?" Of course add in some loud crunching noises and a few sprays of chips dropping into his laps and you have what I was seeing.

"Sasori showed up."

"Sasori? Oh, let me guess he's on the list."

"Yeah..."

"And what happened?"

"He said he wanted to talk to me and told me he'd call me later."

"That made Sasuke that upset?"

"Well he also interrupted our almost-kiss."

Shikamaru frowned. "You almost kissed Sasuke?"

"Well yeah, I mean I've kissed him before."

"You've kissed Sasuke before?"

"Yeah, I kissed him yesterday." I said shrugging.

"What?" Shikamaru said dropping his sandwich and looking at me rather...angrily. Why was he doing that? I don't get it?

"I kissed Sasuke yesterday?"

"Who else were you _kissing yesterday?_" Shikamaru spat.

"Well Itachi kissed me too." I shrugged. What was his god damn problem. They were both on the list therefore I was kinda-semi-dating them in a way.

"You kissed his brother too! The same god damn day?!" Shikamaru stood up.

"Yes!" I got defensive. "Why wouldn't I kiss them?"

"I don't know Sakura, maybe it's because you've always been so dead set on romance and morals and now you go around making out with multiple guys like it doesn't mean anything! Multiple seniors that are only on The List because they have a bet at who can get into your pants first!"

I stood up to match his height, (even though he was still two inches taller) because I hate feeling like he's talking down to me. "I am _not_ a whore, Shikamaru." I snarled using his name (without the suffix, just like he did to me) as a stab back at him. His words rang in my head. I was so hurt that he would think I would let them in my pants that easily anyway. It hurt worst realizing he was probably right about them.

"I don't know _what_ you are anymore." I'd never seen him this mad, well maybe once or twice but definitely not at me. We've never actually had a real fight.

"Not your friend." I snapped before turning around and marching away. Forgetting about my tray because I wasn't that hungry anyway. I just wanted to get out of there and fast.

I stomped into the cafeteria and slowed down, not sure where I was going to go.

I was on the war path.

"Sakura-chan!~" I whirled in the direction of Ino and everyone else that was part of her "kingdom".

"What?" I said my tone full of figurative venom that was dripping from my fangs and practically sloshing around in my mouth ready to coat my next victim.

"Whoa there tiger! I just wanted to let you know Sasori cleared your date tonight with me and it'll be fantastical." She smiled and I notice how it practically glinted perfectly white in the fluorescent lighting. That was so not me.

I was so not the type of person she was. I couldn't do this because the worst part about the fight I had with Shikamaru was he was right and I didn't want to admit that.

I wanted to carry what shred of dignity I had left.

"You didn't clear it with _me_. So you know what? Your not going to set me up on anymore of this bullshit. I don't want to do it anymore. I'm sick of being the pawn in some stupid game you created just for your own amusement. I'm your friend not your play thing. At least I _was_. So if the date will be so great, you go on it." I said watching with a nagging voice cheering me on in the back of my head as Ino's mouth hung open in surprise a bit and Hinata sat shocked next to her along with Tenten.

"Oh and Kiba? Go fuck yourself. Using me to get closer to Ino? Not the smartest move. Sasuke your a moody little prick. You didn't give a shit about me until this started, so I don't care if your pissy with me. Neji? Man up and admit your in love with Tenten. And Naruto, props for asking Hina-chan out. Cute couple."

And with that I stalked out of the room with my head held high. Imagining silent cheers from everyone because I stood up for myself.

Really there wasn't any cheers at all, probably no silent ones either. There were a few holy-shit looks from nearby tables and what-just-happened-i-missed-it's from people not close enough to be snapped out of their conversations by my rising vocals.

I just wished my life could have a cliché made for TV moment where the protagonist walked away from the scene proudly after sticking it to the popular kids who made her life hell and every other loser, reject, and normal person stood up and clapped labeling the heroine as their new poster girl and fearless leader.

That didn't happen, and even if it did I'd be nervous and awkward and I don't want to be in the spotlight so I'd decline and everything would go back to normal except for the new found respect my peers would have for me. They'd all smile and nod at me, occasionally offering a high five or compliment as I passed them in the halls.


	19. Chapter Eighteen

**A/N: THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR REVIEWING! :) Everyone really loved Sakura telling people off didn't you?**

**Haha. Well I did add Gaara in this chapter, and it won't be his last chapter because I love him too much for that.**

**Yuppah, I need to go get my fries out of the oven so enjoy!~ **

**I was going to post earlier but Paramore concert Friday ;) and tons of school work. Sorry!  


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I'll be frank, I had kind of made a mess of things.

Okay I had made a mess of everything, sure, but most of all I had really screwed up the one thing us teenagers guard with our lives.

(I broke some sort of law here.)

I totally, alienated myself from all of my friends...on purpose.

Oh yeah. I was in big fucking trouble.

You see, I don't know if you know this but high school is a giant building where you do everything you possibly can not to be alone. You have a friend picked out for each class just in case you have to partner up in a project, that way you don't end up paired with some smelly kid with no friends.

You have friends in your lunch period that you can always sit with so you don't end up sitting totally alone like some smelly kid with no friends.

You always buddy up to go to the bathrooms so you don't end up cornered by a bully like you were some smelly kid with no friends.

I just turned myself into a smelly kid with no friends.

In fact I had sort of quit the whole list thing, so I was also semi-boyfriend-and-date-less.

I wasn't back to square one, I was back at negative 13.

13 because it's an unlucky number, and it appears Lady Luck has so not been on my side lately.

I really needed to find some friends fast if I wanted to go back to class. Naturally I just dropped everything and ran.

When I mean ran, I actually mean I ran across the quad and climbed up the elm tree that was planted close to the back fence, threw the big slouchy purse I was carrying over, and I jumped.

I took off running down the street, naturally.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

* * *

Alright maybe I was being a total wuss, especially in light of recent events in which I totally stood up for myself and gave everyone the finger.

Okay, I didn't give everyone the finger until I was actually on the opposite side of the street from the school and I did a victory dance and flipped the bird. So what if no one saw me do it, I still slapped them with my words didn't I?

My point is: I had just shown a large display of guts that more than half of the school would never have done. This gives me full rights to run away like a baby afterward.

In case you hadn't really noticed; that is exactly what I was doing.

I didn't run for long, because I was still in my school uniform and running in a skirt is a hard thing to do without being a total slut and revealing everything, so I slowed down to a walk when I was a block away and sure that no one was following me.

I knew I wouldn't be able to hang around in the open for very long before someone reported me to the school, I was sort of noticeable with my _school_ uniform on.

Then an idea sparked in my head. A very lovely and reckless idea.

I was a runaway (sort of). I was a fugitive (a little bit).

All the spy/action thrillers I watched with Tenten were suddenly remembered. This, well this could be a very fun day for me.

I was already in deep shit, I might as well make it worth it right?

I ducked into the nearest clothing store and fished around for the cheapest clothes I could find.

The place had a large sale on swim suits right in the center of the store and by glance I saw a very-cute-totally-Sakura-style-red-and-white-stripped bikini. It was a beautiful day out. Maybe I'll hit the beach?

Oh how ideas do spark right?

I grabbed my size and scanned the rest of the store for something I could where over my new bathing suit. I finally settled on a white tank top with rainbow zebra stripes and the cheapest pair of jean shorts I could find.

I opened the giant slouchy purse of mine and searched for my wallet, pulling out twenty bucks and slapping on the counter impatiently.

The cashier girl, looked about 19 and was probably only working part time here and going to the local university. These kind of girls are common down the boardwalk in summer. Her name tag read Ayame and had been decorated with a purple smiley face sticker.

I rolled my eyes in my head, what was she twelve?

"Making a getaway?" She asked slowly unfolding my shorts and pulling the tag across the scanner, making it beep.

"Erm..." Crap she could easily call the school. I switched my purse to the other arm and covered the Konoha crest on my vest with its strap.

She let out a girly laugh and smiled at me as she scanned the rest of my purchase. "Don't worry, I'm not going to rat you out."

"Uh thanks." I nodded dropping my change into my purse, letting the coins bounce off my makeup. "Do you have like, a bathroom or something I could use?"

"Sure, there's a changing room in the back of the store." She said pointing behind her to the left and I fast walked through a few racks of maxi dresses to get to it.

I flipped the lock once I was inside and jiggled the handle to make sure no one could get in, before tearing the tags of my new clothes and stripping down to change.

I stood in front of the mirror, smiling at how much better I looked in a sport summer disguise than in my school girl outfit. The plaid skirts really weren't all that flattering. I frowned as I folded it up and stuffed it into my purse. As I did a few things scattered onto the floor and I dropped down to stop them from rolling away.

I picked up the waterproof mascara Ino had bought me at the mall and glanced back at the mirror. I stood up and unscrewed the cap, examining the spirally brush before running it over my eyelashes. I combed them upwards with a shiny dark coating and then reached into my bag to fish out the lip gloss Hinata had given me.

I mussed up my hair a bit in that sort-of-sexy way Ino had taught me to do and smacked my shiny pink lips together before slinging my bag over my shoulder and unlocking the door. I felt like a different person.

I passed Ayame, looking down at the floor as I walked. "Hey, wait!" She called and I grimaced before turning back to look at her. "You know, you can't runaway from whatever it is forever." She said leaning on the counter in front of her.

I just nodded and pushed the door open. "No matter how much you want to!" She called after me.

* * *

The sun beat down and I shielded my eyes with my hand as I looked out across the beach. I was sitting down in the sand barefoot because I forgot to buy flip flops. The black Mary Janes I had worn to school sitting in the soft sand beside me. I didn't let it faze me and ruin my mood. I was enjoying the weather, enjoying being alone, enjoying the space to breathe.

Because no one had told me to be there. Good little Haruno Sakura a week ago would never have dreamed of ditching school twice in a week. Never would have thought of leaving campus alone on an impromptu vacation.

I never would have had the guts.

So maybe that's the bright side of all this.

"Enjoying yourself?" Someone said from behind, and I turned as their shadow fell across me.

Gaara. Aka the red head with pretty aqua eyes and permanent eyeliner. Aka the creeper from the stairwell. Aka another boy from The List.

"What are you doing here?" I snarled involuntarily. Honestly they had to find me here. "Did you seriously fucking follow me, because I will kill you if you set this up with Ino."

He didn't look angry, shocked, or scared. He just stared at me and sat down. He sat the hell down, right next to me.

"I was wondering the same thing." He said leaning back.

"Why would you?"

"Because I cut class and come to the beach a lot. Ino probably found that out and planned our date or something."

I frowned. "Why are you on the list?" If he didn't want to have a date with me than he should never have gotten involved in the first place. I didn't see how Ino could have planned this anyway. She didn't know I hopped the fence. She had no clue I would go to the beach.

"I didn't want to be." He shrugged, not caring that I obviously took offense. "I don't do social events. That bun haired girl made me sign up."

"Tenten? They _made_ you?! Oh it just keeps getting better, doesn't it? I hate them. I seriously just hate them." I fell back into the sand, knowing full well that I would have it pouring out of every pocket and wrinkle it could trap itself in later. "Ugh!" I grunted as I covered my face with my hands. "I'm going to kill them all. Every last one of them. I should just go to school with a sawed off shot gun and pick 'em all off one by one."

"What would you do when the cops came after you?" Gaara said casually. I decided to redo my previous judgment of him. Not many strangers could listen to you plot a school shooting and only point out the flaws in concealing the evidence.

"I'd light everything on fire so they wouldn't have any evidence, and then run here and bury myself in the sand. They'd never find me."

"You'd just live in the sand forever?"

"Yuppah." I said letting my lips smack together at the "p" as I stared up at the clouds, like I used to do with Shikamaru.

"What would you eat?"

"Crabs...They burrow in the sand don't they? Or I could just steal some food from the surfers, they come here practically everyday."

"What if someone notices the rapid decrease in the crab population and picnic food?"

"I'll fish then too. Even it out. Maybe catch a few seagulls."

"How are you going to clean the fish and cook them?"

"I'll bring a knife with me and maybe a box of matches."

"What if someone notices the fire?"

"I'll put the fire in my sand hole, no one will see it."

"You forgot about the smoke."

"Well then I'll only cook in the middle of the night."

"Can I come with?"

"I don't see why not, I'll need some company."

"You could always bring a volleyball along."

"Is that a reference to Castaway?"

"Yes."

"I hated that part where he pulled out his tooth. Just the noise sounds so horrible."

"I'll make sure you don't preform your own dental care then."

"Good."

"Yeah."

"Should we get started?"

"With what? Killing everyone?"

"No, digging our new house?"

"Sure." He stood up and looked around. "Where do you want to put it?"

"Here is fine." I shrugged, sitting up and pushing sand away in big sweeping motions with my arms. Even though are plan was terrible and ridiculous it felt good to have some sort of plan. Even if it was just a joke. I was doing something, that's what mattered. It would take my mind of everything at least.

"So why did you leave?" Gaara asked me as he joined in digging.

"I told Ino and everyone off for starting this stupid list and bossing me around." I shrugged pushing more sand out of the way, we already had the dry part of it in a pile, it was harder to scoop out the wet and more compacted soil.

"You stood up for yourself...and then ran away?" He said staring at me like I was an idiot. Oh yeah I'm an idiot for running away but not for digging a hole in the sand to live in? Nice try.

"I had a fight with Shikamaru, and he thinks I'm a whore." Saying the words made something in my chest hurt. My friends mean the world to me and now I'm losing them. I lost them, because of what I did. I'm the one at fault.

Eff.

"He called you a whore?" Gaara asked calmly. He was so calm today, it was weird. When I first met him he had been a complete creeper/asshole.

"Not directly. He sort of hinted at it though, because I kissed Sasuke. He asked me who else I kissed yesterday and I admitted Itachi kissed me too. Then he said he didn't know what I was anymore." I bit my lip and dug harder. The wet sand got stuck under my nails but I didn't give a damn. All I wanted was to get this sand out of the hole I was going to make. Just like I wanted to get all of the person I had been this past week out of me.

"You only kissed Sasuke and Itachi yesterday." He said, but it wasn't exactly a statement. It was more of a question and it confused me so I stopped and looked up at him. He kept his eyes downcast into the sand as he scooped it out in handfuls.

"Yeah I on-Oh my god!" It hit me. I was such an idiot, I was such a complete moron! How had I completely forgotten? I was a bit drunk then sure but I still remembered and Shikamaru had even asked me, and I had totally forgotten. He was sitting right in front of me and I had acted like it had never happened.

I had let kissing Shikamaru disappear from my mind because I had been completely ignoring those feelings I had for him.

And now I had said I wasn't his friend! I had completely ruined everything and he probably hated my guts right now.

"Mhmm." Gaara nodded, already knowing my thoughts. He stopped digging and looked at the large space we had cleared. It wasn't more than an inch deep, but for some reason he sat down in the middle of it, his legs extended outward.

"I totally ruined everything didn't I? I ignored him and then I told him we weren't friends...and then I left! Oh my god I just left! I should have taken it back." I shook my head and stopped myself before I pressed my sandy hands to my face. I watched Gaara, who wasn't listening to me but instead covering his legs with the pile of sand next to him.

"What are you doing?"

"I like sand." Was all he said.

"What?"

He shrugged and looked at me intently. "Face it, if we shared this hole you'd just be dead weight to me, so you should go fix your life, I think that one suits you better."

"I..." Was he serious? Did he think I was actually planning on living in this hole and hunting crabs all day? No, he couldn't he was just trying to get me to leave.

Because that's what I need to do. Is leave. I'm not getting anything done running away.

"Argh!" I jumped up and rubbed my hands together to get the sand off.

I hate these life lessons. It's total bullshit!

* * *

I ran into the store I was just in and passed the cashier girl who popped a bubble of gum, watching me rush to the changing room again.

I ran back out, my uniform a little haphazard and my blouse half-tucked but I didn't care.

"Finally realize you can't run from it?" Ayame called to me and I held a thumbs up over my head as I threw the door open.


	20. CHapter Nineteen

**A/N: I have a box of hugs sitting next to me and they go out to all of my lovely lovely reviewers :) You make me so so happy.**

**I know this chapter is very late and very short but I'm very tired :( so I'll try to write more sooner and post it for you beautiful people.**

**Your reviews would probably help motivate me some more ;)**

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Remember how I climbed up that elm tree to be tall enough to hop over the fence? Right, there's no elm tree on the _outside_ of the fence around the school.

I was fucked to put it bluntly.

I was still reeling from my revelation of kissing Shikamaru. I didn't know what I was going to do about Sasuke, Itachi, Sasori, any other guy on The List, Ino, Tenten, Hinata, or my classes which I skipped.

None of that exactly mattered even if I did have a plan, because I couldn't get into the school.

Waltzing up to the front gate wasn't really an option. I'd get suspended for sneaking out of classes and going off school grounds.

That might not be such a bad idea...

* * *

Without any other options I scoped out the perimeter of the fence not finding any convenient step to boost me over. I felt like crying.

But giving up wasn't really my style. That's a lie, giving up is my style, I just didn't have that option right now.

I got an idea, it was a stupid idea of course, but it was something to work with. I went back around to the east side of the school and scanned the sidewalks for anyone. After about two minutes of waiting a guy who was probably 19 or 20 came out of the cafe.

I fluffed up my hair and stood on my tiptoes waving one hand over my head. "Hey! Excuse me! Yeah you, can you come here a second? I need your help!"

He stared at me a moment and then crossed the street. "Uh yeah?" He was fairly decent looking with dark brown hair cut short and a thin set of glasses perched on his nose.

"Come here a second, please?" I said tugging him lightly back towards the back of the school.

I stopped at the spot where I could see the elm tree peeking over the fence and pointed. "Boost me up, 'kay?"

"What?" He stared at me and then the fence and then back at me.

"Listen, just real quick; link your hands together so I can put my foot there and boost me up the fence." Really was this that hard?

"W-why?"

"Because I'm not supposed to be out here and if anyone finds me I'm going to get suspended." I gave a little sniff and did my best to push a few tears out. I succeeded in making my eyes watery and blinked at him. "If I get suspended I'll l-l-lose my scholarship!" My bottom lip quivered and I stared up at him, poor guy, my acting was really working on him.

"Okay, okay! Don't cry! I'll help you get inside!" He patted my shoulder awkwardly and glanced up at the fence.

"Really! Okay, crouch down and link your hands together." I instructed, my fake sadness immediately gone as he did what I told him.

I put my foot into his hands carefully and leaned my weight into him to see if he could hold it. "If you look up my skirt I will kill you, understand?" I said menacingly.

"Uh no problem." The tips of his ears reddened and he looked down at the grass.

"Okay, one-two-three!" He hoisted me up and I grabbed the top of the wall using his boost and my upper-body strength to pull me up and sit down.

"Woo! Thank you so much!" I smiled down. "Can you hand me my bag?"

"Sure." He picked it up from the base of the fence and handed it up to me. I grabbed it and threw it down at the bottom of the tree.

"Bye!" I waved at him as I dropped down, out of sight.

* * *

Crisis number one averted.

Score one for Team Sakura.

I milled through the building unnoticed by everyone because classes were already over and people were off to do what they pleased with their spare time.

This was a perfect chance to settle what was needed which was: Repair my number one friendship with Shikamaru.

I headed to the boys dormitory.

The boys dorms are loud and obnoxious, full of random things like soccer balls and frisbees bouncing and flying through the air. It was sort of homey if you think about it.

I stepped out of the elevator on the third floor where the boys from the junior class mostly roomed and stepped over a few people lounging in the hallway to get to Shikamaru's room. I clutched my bag tightly for security because I always felt awkward and a little frightened when I was walking around here alone.

Room 309 came into view and I stepped up to the door, ignoring the guys down the hall that were smacking a tennis ball against the wall and catching it when it bounced back at them, and knocked.

There were muffled voices coming from the room and suddenly the door swung open and Choji greeted me, rather surprised.

"...Hey Sakura-chan. What are you doing here?" He asked glancing behind him nervously. He was blocking the rest of the room, keeping the door open just enough for him to squeeze through a little bit.

"Can I talk to Shikamaru-kun please?" I asked craning my neck to try and see around Choji. He moved to block me though.

"I don't think now is the best time..." He said.

"Choji!" I drew his name out in a whine. "Just let me see him. It's really important."

"I know Sakura-chan, but believe me when I say you should come back later."

"I need to get this resolved as quickly as possible. _Now_ is sort of the time frame on that." I tapped my foot at him.

"Now isn't a good time..." He said quietly, and took a step back so he could close the door.

"Well that's just too bad, because like it or not I'm going to talk to him." I stuck my foot out and planted my hand firmly against the door leaning forward before Choji had time to react and pushing with all my weight. The door flew open and bounced back against the wall.

I got a full view of the room that was so familiar to me. The zombie movie posters were still all over the walls as well as a few Star Wars models of the Death Star and Millennium Falcon.

I took in the blue and green bean bags sitting in front of the medium sized TV. The bean bags that seated Shikamaru and Naruto who appeared to be playing the newest Call of Duty.

Kiba, Sasuke, Neji, and Shino were all either seated on the floor or the two beds watching the boys play but everyone was now staring at me, who had just made a big scene interrupting there guy time.

Maybe I didn't want to talk to Shikamaru after all...

"Hey...guys." I said biting my lip. "What's up? Heh...heh..."

"I told you..." Choji mumbled lowly so only I could here.

The guys just stared at me, Sasuke and Shikamaru the two that clearly looked mad.

No one responded. "Uhm, okay. Well Shikamaru-kun can I talk to you?"

"No." He said flatly before turning back to the TV screen. "Get out of my room."

I winced and stood there for a few more seconds, until Choji patted my arm gently. Naruto offered me an apologetic smile before taking the game off pause and resuming their playing time.

I stepped back through the door way. "I'm sorry Sakura-chan." Choji said and he truly seemed to mean it.

"So am I." I replied and I truly meant it too.


	21. Chapter Twenty

**A/N: I'm a terrible person. I'm a terrible terrible person, for saying my chapter would be up early and then not putting it up...Writer's block sucks man. **

** I have no room for excuses and f.y.i. This chapter sucks and is boring.**

** I forced myself to post something before I leave for vacation tomorrow.**

** I'm sorry. :'( I don't deserve my 100+ reviews. (XD! WOO I hit 100) I still love you all though.

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Rejection hurts.

Especially when people are around to see it, people that are equally mad and rejecting to you as the first person.

People like Sasuke watching Shikamaru reject me.

Then there are people like Choji and Naruto who feel sorry for you, which makes you feel much worse because having people feeling sorry for you means they wish they weren't you.

Which means your life isn't worth them wanting, which means it probably isn't anything close to what you want your life to be.

You know what makes it all worse?

It's all my fault.

* * *

I managed to trudge slowly and quietly, holding my tears in and taking the long way back to my dorm. Even going so far as to take all the stairs to skip the elevator, therefore skipping having a ton of people see pitiful me.

I slid my student ID card into the lock on my door, waited for the little green light to blink on and pushed my door open.

I creeped into the room bracing myself for a moment, and finding no one there.

"Oh thank god." I collapsed face down on my bed, dropping my big, slouchy purse onto the floor.

The last thing I wanted was for Hinata to see me, or worse for Ino and Tenten to be in here with Hinata.

I laid there for two hours, unmoving.

I just thought.

Thought about everything that had happened and how I reacted.

How I needed to put it all back together, regardless of the fact that I wasn't in a good spot to do so.

I went over every single detail from the past few days, every date, every boy, every friend, every stupid thing I did.

All of it.

You know how it all made me feel? Like crap.

I mean sure, in retrospect I thought about my date with Lee and laughed a tiny bit and I might have blushed at the thought of kissing all those amazing guys but that didn't mean my life hadn't had it's share of bad things happening in between the events.

Actually, the good events were the main factors catapulting into those in between events.

I know this sounds stupid, I'm just summing everything up so I can get my head cleared.

Right now, the only way I see it I need to start back over.

From practically square one. I was going to finish this thing, even though it'll be hard and it's already a big mess.

I'm going to use my new found wits and go back to the normal, old, real me but use her to make smarter decisions than the dumb, new, fake me did.

Yeah, that'll work won't it?

* * *

I had the rest of my night to sit alone in my room. I showered and combed out my hair and organized everything for tomorrow morning when I woke up so I'd look perfect and be totally organized and ready.

I sleep much better when I know I won't wake up fussing over accessories and how my hair will turn out.

I did all my homework. Sure it took like five years, but I caught up on everything, even calling some classmates to get the assignments.

It was probably 11:20 when Hinata walked in biting her lip and wringing her hands. She stared at the floor probably thinking I was mad at her.

"Hina-chan, I'm sorry." I blurted out as I sat down on the middle of my bed.

"Oh!" She looked up at me clearly surprised. "I-I figured y-you would...N-nevermind! I'm so s-so sorry Sakura-chan! I should never e-e-ever let Ino start that du-m-mb game." Her words poured out in a jumbled rush and she sat down next to me throwing her arms around my neck.

"Hina, it's alright, really. I'm not even mad anymore. It's useless and it's my fault anyway." She let her arms fall away from me and blinked back a few tears.

"What?"

"Sure I didn't make up the game, but I still ruined it by the way I played. I messed up. I'm not mad." I said firmly, because I knew if I showed any sign of wavering Hinata would continue to blame herself. She's so sweet. It's just overboard sometimes.

"B-but I could have-"

"Stop." I held up my hand. "Really, just forget about it."

* * *

Hinata followed me out of our dorm room and down the hallway. She was still hesitant at first and apologized to me as we were getting ready for school but I quickly shushed her and she resumed her happy personality as she walked along beside me now.

"Sakura-chan, have you spoken to Shikamaru-kun yet?" Hinata asked as we rounded the corner down the main hallway.

"I tried to...he wouldn't speak to me though. I pissed off a lot of people yesterday, I don't blame him especially for being mad." I sighed, trying to not let it get to me too much. I'd try to speak to Shikamaru a little bit again today but I knew now wasn't the time.

Shikamaru needed his space for a while until he got ready to talk to me. That's just how he worked, and if I kept bugging him and pushing him to work at my pace like always we would damage our friendship even more. Or what's left of it that is.

The thought of losing Shika forever made me shudder.

"Are you okay?" Hinata asked me.

"Yeah, I'll be fine." I reassured her as I neared the Advanced Chemistry room.

* * *

I sat into my usual seat at the black topped table I shared with Shikamaru, who wasn't in class yet. I was a little relieved and a little curious, because Shikamaru is never late to class (despite his laziness) I'm the one who's always late.

"Sakura, nice of you to join us today." Kurenai-sensei said from her desk giving me that knowing look and I slouched in my seat.

"I've missed your class so much Kurenai-sensei, it's just that I was having trouble getting over a bad cold." She gave me a "hmph" and dropped the subject.

I really did need to get better at lying. Maybe Tenten could coach me? On second though she really isn't that great of a teacher, I'm sure that wouldn't be a good idea after all...

My thoughts were interrupted by my last few classmates to walk in the door, followed by the bell ringing and Kurenai closing the door.

I stared at the door.

Where was Shikamaru?

He's never late...

"Sakura-san?"

"Uh yes Kurenai-sensei?" I asked tearing my eyes away from the door I was so sure Shikamaru would waltz right through, already having a yellow pass slip ready to hand in.

"Where is Nara today?"

"I don't know Kurenai-sensei. I haven't spoken to him." I shrugged.

"Well I certainly hope he hasn't caught that cold of yours." She said crisply turning to her computer to surely mark him absent.

* * *

I sat down in Creative Writing and took out my notebook to continue on with my collection of doodles. It wouldn't help if I stared at the door for another whole period, praying Shika would just show up with some extremely good and completely true excuse.

It only stung a little by the time I got to College Math and Asuma-sensei was the third teacher to ask me where Shikamaru was. Of course I should have expected it from him most of all, Shikamaru was his favorite student, and Asuma was Shikamaru's favorite teacher.

I was a little worried their friendship would cause him to take but Asuma's awful smoking habit, but so far I haven't got any hints of it. I wouldn't be surprised if Asuma gave his prodigy cigarettes though, he's not a big respecter of rules...or laws...

* * *

I made sure I was one of the first to come into Art though. I quickly sat down and rested my head in my arms on the desk.

I didn't want to see anyone's faces as they came in and took their seats, especially the ones that sat around me. Cornering me more like it.

I forgot I'd be surrounded on all sides. Naruto might be the only one with a shred of loyalty left for me. He may be Sasuke's best friend but he was Hinata's boyfriend.

I flinched when I heard the seats in front of me and to the left of me scoot out at nearly the same time. I had been lost in my own thoughts enough to not notice any of the familiar voices of my friends.

I did immediately recognize Naruto's laugh as he walked in with who I assumed was Hinata-chan. I refused to look up and see though, even though I knew Hinata would be worried the instant she saw me.

I broke my concentration when I heard the seat in front of me and directly to the right squeak and groan as someone sat down, followed by a sigh.

When my head snapped up and saw that spiky ponytail I almost had a moment of relief, except I realized Tenten was turned around in her chair and staring directly at me, her face completely blank and erased of any emotion.

"We need to talk." She said flatly, before turning around and facing the front of the room.

I wanted to get up and duck out of class, pretend I was sick, that I needed to throw up. Because that wouldn't be entirely false. My refusal to run away anymore won out.

I stared at Tenten's two messy brown buns for a few seconds before checking to make sure my face was composed. I turned my head ever so slightly to the right, as if I was looking at Neji, and peeked at Sasuke-kun from the corner of my eye.

He was watching me, with a face as equally blank at Tenten's was.

Somehow I knew he really wasn't someone for 'talking it out' and making up.

* * *

**A/N: Give some reviews to Serendipity.  
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**Because like hello it's the best thing I've ever written. **

**P.S. How can you guys even like this story! Haha. No really.**


	22. Chapter Twenty One

**A/N: Oh my it's been too long hasn't it? I forced myself to sit down and reread this (and I winced with every typo and stupid sentence) until I knew what I wanted to write next. Yes it's close to the end too. T.T But there's still a few more chapters to go, and I really hope you'll stick around for them. I apologize for the wait and (thanks for the bunny! :D) I promise I'm going to finish this. I've just been stuck on where to go and I've been concentrating on my story Serendipity (which you should all go read. _)**

**Thank you everyone :) I love you allll.**

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I casually made my way towards the door just before the bell and stood around by the shelf of colored paper pretending to look for a specific one. As soon as the bell did ring, I bulldozed through the door and sprinted down the hallway, trying to find places to hide. I heard Tenten shout my name and I ducked into the nearest doors.

I grabbed the handles and pulled backwards so no one would be able to get in, or see them shut behind me and think I had gone in. I counted to thirty, let go and exhaled, before turning back around.

The auditorium and, as my luck would have it, there was Deidara. He eyed me from atop the stage, smirking all the while.

"Sakura-chan, yeah? What are you doing in here?"

"I was just...looking for...a janitor. Yeah, a kid puked in the east hallway, it's a mess." Deidara made a disgusted face as I continued. "Just...avoid that hallway, ya know? Wreaks like a landfill or something. I think he had the biscuits and gravy for breakfast. You really shouldn't trust the school's gravy." I blathered on as he jumped off the stage and walked towards me.

"Right, well since your here we should talk, yeah?" He motioned towards the front row of seats and I figured I'd choose the lesser of two evils. I'd rather sit and talk with Deidara than be cornered by Tenten and the gang.

"Sure thing. What's up?" I asked but Deidara didn't reply until I was in a seat. He sat next to me, blocking my way into the aisle.

"Sakura-chan, you're very pretty."

"What?"

"Your pretty and smart."

"I-uh-thanks? Uhm, I don't know-"

"Your cute too." He gave a short laugh. "All your nervous stuttering."

My face grew hot, why did he have to mention my stutter?

"I was wondering..."

"Hm?"

"Are you a good kisser too?" My brain stalled as Deidara leaned in and to kiss me and then it shut off and took a few seconds to reboot. A few seconds that were promptly used kissing Deidara, who if anyone was wondering, is definitely a good kisser. Once my brain fired up again I leaned away.

"Deidara, no." Oh right, now I stop stuttering. I couldn't have said that ten seconds earlier?

He blinked at me.

"I'm sorry, your cute and popular and everything and you seem...very nice but I'm going to have to decline your offer to the dance. I...I like someone and I messed a lot of things up with him."

He nodded and leaned back. "Who?"

Now it was my turn to sit and blink. Who? The question formed in my brain and I realized I didn't even know who I was talking about.

Sasuke or Shikamaru?

"I...I'm sorry I have to go now." I stood up and squeezed by him, not caring how ungraceful I was being. I just didn't really care at that point.

* * *

I walked through the main hallway, which was almost empty by now. Saturday night was the Homecoming football game. Kiba, Naruto, Neji, Itachi, and Sasuke would all be out there playing right now. I never went, even though no one missed the Homecoming game. But I didn't know who I'd sit with even if I went. I'd avoided everyone all day so I hadn't patched things up with the girls yet or been able to apologize to Shikamaru.

Actually I don't even know what I would say to him. I couldn't work that out in my head. We were best friends, but best friends don't kiss.

What about Sasuke? I was head over heels for him, but why did it seem like he needed a competition to finally show feelings for me?

My head was swimming when I bumped into someone. "Oh! I'm so sorry-" I was chest to chest with Sasori.

"Sakura, blossom, what are you doing out here? You should really be watching the game."

"I...well footballs not really my thing..."

He cocked his head to the side. "Some of your good friends are playing, your not going to root for them?"

I looked off to the side, guilt trip much? I'm _was_ being a bad friend just because I was scared. "I don't really have anyone to sit with..."

"Now you do." He grinned, locking our hands together.

* * *

I squirmed around again and wrapped my arms around myself. I felt like people were staring at me, but the glances I was getting didn't usually linger. I was sitting with Sasori, the star of every school play. He'll probably grow up to be an actor on the red carpet. I didn't belong next to him.

I focused my attention back at the field where the two teams were busy practicing throws before the game officially started.

"So Sakura, have you decided who your taking to the dance yet?"

"No, I never even wanted to go in the first place."

"Why are you playing this game then?"

"My friends started it...Actually I don't know if they're even my friends anymore. I messed a lot of things up this week."

"I don't think you did that bad." He ran a hand through his red hair and winked at me.

"No, I did. I yelled at everyone, my best friends...I kept running away from my problems too."

"Why?" His voice changed to a more serious tone.

I looked at him. His eyes probed me and he asked again. "Why did you run?"

"I don't know how to deal with all this. The attention, the boys, or the dates. I don't know how to act and it's so overwhelming. Everyone wants some of me, but what if what they want isn't really what I am? What if I'm just plain Sakura. I'm quiet and smart and dorky. I watch old movies and sing along to mixed CD's at the top of my lungs. I'm not outgoing or classy or pretty like Ino. I'm not good at sports or acting. I can't socialize properly. I'm not what everyone expects me to be, what they _think_ I am. I guess I'm afraid that when people realize who I am, they won't like me at all." I just poured my heart out to a practical stranger. Great, I'm such a sap. I should have added that all I do is embarrass myself one conversation and tripping, falling, running into, fainting episode at a time.

"I think you're afraid that your not good enough and you push people out because you don't want to find out that you disappoint them. But you don't know just as much as they don't, if you're good enough."

"I...I'm not good enough. I know that." I said slowly. I fidgeted with the hem of my tee shirt.

"I think your wrong. Truly wrong. Your better than what people think you are." He gave me a sideways glance and turned his attention the start of the game.

I opened my mouth to speak but my lip trembled instead and I felt like crying again. Sasori reached over and squeezed my hand once, never taking his eyes from the game.

We held hands the whole time, cheering on the Fighting Leafs together, with everyone. The entire student body was completely unified and we were just one big voice. It felt good. To be apart of something for once, rather than looking at it from the outside.

As the game ended Sasori leaned over and whispered in my ear. "You need to have a talk with Itachi." I started to ask why but he just gave a small shake of his head and softly pressed his lips to my forehead for a quick kiss. His hand finally slipped out of mine, as he made to walk away. He looked like he has much more to say, but he just gave a small smile and made his way down the metal bleachers.


End file.
